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THE    GILLMANS    OF    HIGHGATE 

AND 

S.    T.    COLERIDGE, 

WITH   SEVERAL   HITHERTO    UNPUBLISHED   NOTES,   LETTERS,    &C. 

l895. 


THE 


GILLMANS  OF  HIGHQATE 


WITH    LETTERS    FROM 


Samuel  ZCa^lor  Coleridge, 

&C-, 

ILLUSTRATED   WITH   VIEWS   AND  PORTRAITS, 


BEING  A   CHAPTER   FROM   THE 


History  of  the  Gillman  Family. 


BY   ALEXANDER   W.  GILLMAN. 


LONDON:   ELLIOT  STOCK,  62,  PATERNOSTER  Row. 
[AH  rights  reserved^ 


FARNCOMBE  &  Co.,  PRINTERS,  LEWES. 


THE  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES  in  the  following  Chapter,  containing 
several  new  letters  from  and  particulars  of  the  Poet  Coleridge,  &c., 
are  taken  from  a  larger  work,  which  is  being  prepared  for  the  Press, 
entitled  "  Searches  into  the  History  of  the  Gillman  Family,"  the 
author  deeming  that  many  may  like  to  possess  a  copy  of  the  Highgate 
Chapter  and  particulars  of  the  life  of  James  Gillman,  the  "friend"  of 
Coleridge,  to  whom  the  whole  work  may  not  be  of  so  much  interest. 


PREFACE. 

BY    HENRY    B.   WHEATLEY,   F.S.A. 


THE  beautiful  northern  suburb  of  Highgate  can  boast  that  among 
its  most  famous  residents  were  two  men  whose  magnificent 
intellects  have  illuminated  our  literature  for  all  time.     Francis 
Bacon  died  at  Highgate  in  the  seventeenth  century  and  nearly  two 
centuries  later  Coleridge,  whose  special  influence  on  national  thought 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  less,  died  there  also. 

My  friend,  Mr.  Alexander  Gillman,  has  asked  me  to  write  a 
preface  to  this  work,  in  which  he  brings  forward  fresh  materials 
illustrating  the  life  of  the  latter  of  these  two — the  great  poet  and 
philosopher,  whose  character  and  genius  are  every  day  better  under- 
stood and  appreciated — and  I  do  so  with  much  pleasure. 

Although  an  essay  so  full  of  interest  needs  no  introduction  to 
the  reading  public  it  may  be  well  to  refer  in  a  few  words  to  its  chief 
claims  to  attention. 

In  1816  Coleridge  came  to  reside  with  Mr.  James  Gillman,  a 
young  surgeon  of  thirty-four,  who  was  then  living  on  Highgate  Hill. 
He  was  introduced  to  Gillman  by  Dr.  Joseph  Adams,  of  Hatton 
Garden,  in  the  hope  that  he  might  be  cured  of  his  fatal  habit  of  opium 
eating,  and  he  was  cured.  This  is  a  point  of  great  importance,  for 
the  cure  has  been  denied. 

The  relative  responsibility  of  Coleridge  and  De  Quincey,  the 
famous  "  Opium  eater,"  in  respect  to  their  first  use  of  the  drug,  was 
always  a  sore  point  with  the  latter,  and  being  offended  by  the  printing 
of  a  certain  letter  of  Coleridge's  in  "  Gillman's  Life,"  De  Quincey 
affirmed  that  Coleridge  took  to  opium  as  a  source  of  luxurious 
sensation  and  not  merely  to  alleviate  pain.  Moreover,  he  said  that 
Coleridge's  constitution  was  strong  and  excellent.  "  Mr.  Gillman 
never  says  one  word  upon  the  event  of  the  great  Highgate  experiment 
for  leaving  off  laudanum,  though  Coleridge  came  to  Mr.  Gillman's  for 


2  Preface. 

no  other  purpose."*  De  Quincey  goes  on  to  say,  probably  half  in 
joke,  that  Gillman  was  converted  to  opium  and  that  a  hogshead  of 
laudanum  went  up  every  third  month  through  Highgate  tunnel.  This, 
of  course,  is  absurd,  and  both  the  other  points  are  equally  untrue. 

Mr.  James  Gillman  wrote,  "It  was  not  idleness,  it  was  not  sensual 
indulgence  that  led  Coleridge  to  contract  the  habit.  No,  it  was  latent 
disease,"  t  and  he  always  affirmed  that  the  habit  was  eventually  over- 
come. In  spite  of  this  a  vague  report  got  abroad  that  Coleridge 
continued  to  obtain  supplies  of  laudanum  surreptitiously  from  a 
chemist  in  Tottenham  Court  Road,  through  the  agency  of  the  doctor's 
boy.  Mr.  A.  W.  Gillman  is  able  to  refute  this  scandal  on  the  testimony 
of  the  boy — now  Mr.  Thomas  Taylor  (see  p.  15).  Mrs.  Watson's  letter 
to  The  Times  (reprinted  on  p.  35),  containing  an  account  of  the  post- 
mortem examination,  proves  how  great  Coleridge's  sufferings  must 
have  been,  and  this  was  the  man  who.  was  said  by  De  Quincey  to  have 
had  an  excellent  constitution. 

It  is  truly  a  satisfaction  to  lovers  of  Coleridge,  who  have  been 
told  repeatedly  that  he  did  little  and  allowed  his  mind  to  be  over- 
powered by  his  bodily  ailments,  to  learn  from  one  who  writes  with 
authority  that  his  was  "  one  more  instance  of  the  triumph  of  mind 
over  our  body"  (see  p.  37). 

Almost  immediately  after  Coleridge  went  to  the  Gillmans,  Charles 
Leslie,  the  celebrated  artist,  lately  arrived  from  America,  but  subse- 
quently a  Royal  Academician,  visited  him  and  drew  his  portrait  (p.  16) 
as  well  as  that  of  Mr.  Gillman  (p.  21).  Leslie  describes  his  reception  in 
an  interesting  letter,  dated  June  3,  1816,  from  which  the  following  is  an 
extract : — "  Mr.  Coleridge  is  at  present  here ;  he  has  just  published 
his  poem  of  *  Cristabel.'  He  lives  at  Highgate  (about  three  miles 
from  us)  in  a  most  delightful  family.  He  requested  me  to  sketch  his 
face,  which  I  did,  out  there,  and  by  that  means  became  acquainted 
with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman,  who  are  a  sort  of  people  that  you  become 
intimate  with  at  once.  They  have  invited  me  in  the  most  friendly 
manner  to  visit  them  at  all  times,  and  to  spend  weeks  with  them. 

*  De  Quincey's  Works,  ed.  Masson,  V.,  208. 

t  "  Life  of  Coleridge,"  by  James  Gillman,  p.  275  (note). 


Preface.  3 

There  are  some  beautiful  scenes  about  Highgate,  and  I  shall  in  future 
make  it  my  resort  for  landscape  studies.  Mrs.  Gillman  has  a  very  fine 
face,  and  she  will  sit  to  me  whenever  I  wish.  She  is  a  very  excellent, 
charming  woman  ;  and  to  do  the  English  justice,  I  believe  hers  is  not 
an  uncommon  character  among  them."  * 

It  was  indeed  a  happy  ending  for  Coleridge's  life  that  during  his 
last  eighteen  years  he  found  so  restful  a  home.  Both  host  and  hostess 
were  devoted  to  their  guest  and  all  his  friends  were  welcomed  at  their 
hospitable  house.  The  storm-tossed  man  at  last  found  peace.  He 
still  suffered  in  body  and  was  troubled  by  want  of  money,  but  he  was 
at  anchor  and  on  the  whole  the  end  of  his  life  may  be  said  to  have 
been  happy.  Coleridge  was  never  tired  of  expressing  his  sense  of  the 
deep  obligations  he  was  under  to  this  worthy  couple. 

Their  grandson  has  done  well  to  bring  into  prominence  some 
of  the  incidents  relating  to  those  who  must  always  be  held  in  the 
highest  esteem  by  the  lovers  of  Coleridge — a  class  which  is  daily 
increasing — and  he  has  added  to  the  interest  of  his  work  by  ^;he 
insertion  of  the  various  portraits  and  views  which  are  of  original  value. 

*  Leslie's  "Autobiographical  Recollections,"  edited  by  Tom  Taylor,  1860,  Vol.  II.,  p.  50. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  GILLMAN,  Surgeon,  from  an  Oil  Painting  in  the 

possession  of  the  Author .......  Frontispiece. 

THE  GROVE,  HIGHGATE,  showing  the  Church  of  St.  Michael  and  No.  3,      PAGB 
James  Gillman's  house,  where  Coleridge  lived  the  latter  years  of  his 
life  and  died.     Drawn  by  Sulman     .....          .          .5 

VIEW  OF  "  MORETON   HOUSE,"  the  residence  of  James  Gillman  when 

S.  T.  Coleridge  first  came  to  live  with  him  in  1816  .          Facing         6 

VIEW  OF  THE  BACK  OF  MR.  GILLMAN'S  HOUSE  IN  THE  GROVE, 
HIGHGATE,  showing  the  roof  raised  in  order  to  make  the  Study  for 
S.  T.  Coleridge.  From  a  drawing  made  by  Amelia  Boyce  in  the  year 
1835.  Now  in  the  possession  of  the  Author  .  .  .  Facing  8 

SAMUEL  TAYLOR  COLERIDGE.  From  a  Portrait  by  Dawe,  R.A.  (1812) 
in  possession  of  the  late  Lord  Chief  Justice  Coleridge.  Etched 
by  Lowenstam.  Kindly  lent  for  this  Work  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Lloyd,  of 
Highgate Facing  10 

BUST  OF  S.  T.  COLERIDGE.  From  a  Cast  taken  after  death,  by  the 
direction  of  James  Gillman,  Surgeon.  Now  in  the  possession  of 
Alex.  W.  Gillman Facing  13 

COLERIDGE'S  STUDY  and  the  room  in  which  he  died  in  Mr.  Gillman's 

house Facing       14 

S.  T.  COLERIDGE.     From  a  Sketch  by  Chas.  R.  Leslie,  R.A.,  in  1816. 

Now  in  the  possession  of  the  Author       ....          Facing       16 

JAMES  GILLMAN,  Surgeon.    From  a  Sketch  by  Chas. R.Leslie,  R.A  ,in  1816. 

A  companion  picture  to  the  preceding  one  of  Coleridge  .          Facing      21 

MRS.  ANN  GILLMAN.  From  an  Oil  Painting  by  Maria  Spilsbury.  Now 
in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Henry  G.  Watson,  of  Great  Staughton 
Vicarage,  Hunts  . Facing  24 

MRS.  ANN  GILLMAN,  the  Widow  of  James  Gillman,  Surgeon.  From  a 
Pastel  Drawing  by  Amelia  Bqyce.  In  the  possession  of  her  grandson, 
Alex.  W.  Gillman Facing  26 

BARFREYSTONE  CHURCH,  KENT Facing      30 

THE  REV.  JAMES  GILLMAN,  B.C.L.     From  a  Painting  by  Norman  Macbeth, 

A.R.S.A. Facing      32 

PORTRAIT  OF  S.  T.  COLERIDGE  as  a  young  man.  From  an  Oil  Painting, 
believed  to  be  by  Miss  Matilda  Betham.  Now  the  property  of  Alex. 
W.  Gillman Facing  35 


JAMES    GILLMAN,    Surgeon, 

"The  Friend  of  S.  T.  COLERIDGE." 
(From  an  Oil  Painting  in  the  possession  of  Alex.  W.  GMman.J 


THE  GROVE,  HIGHGATE. 


THE    GILLMANS    OF    HIGHGATE. 


Letters   of  S.   T.  Coleridge. 


JAMES  GILLMAN,  the  well-known  surgeon  of  Highgate  (grand- 
father of  the  author  of  this  work)  was  born  at  Great  Yarmouth, 
Norfolk,  and  baptised  in  the  Parish  Church  of  that  town  on  the 
7th  of  July,  1782. 

He  was  the  eldest  surviving  son  of  John  Gilman  and  Elizabeth 
Bracey  of  Great  Yarmouth,  who  were  married  on  March  i5th,  1777, 
at  the  Parish  Church  of  that  town.  John  Gilman  subsequently  married 
Frances  Keymer,  the  daughter  of  a  surgeon  at  Norwich,  and  dying  at 
Heigham,  near  Norwich,  in  January,  1821,  was  buried  at  St.  Peter's 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 


Church,  Norwich,  January  i5th,  1821.  James  Gillman  acquired  his 
first  knowledge  and  taste  for  surgery  from  Mr.  Keymer,  having  been 
probably  articled  to  that  gentleman,  but  after  his  father's  second 
marriage,  he  came  up  to  London,  and  supporting  himself,  completed 
his  medical  and  surgical  training  at  the  Westminster  Hospital  and 
at  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  where  he  obtained  in  the  year 
1811  the  prize  for  his  essay  on  the  "Bite  of  a  Rabid  Animal," 
which  was  subsequently  published,  being  dedicated  to  Anthony 
Carlisle,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Anatomy  in  the  Royal  Academy  and 
Surgeon  to  the  Westminster  Hospital,  who  wrote  an  appendix  to  the 
same. 

James  Gillman  married  on  the  i8th  July,  1807,  at  St.  George's, 
Hanover  Square,  London,  Anne  Harding,  daughter  of  James  Harding, 
Esq. 

He  settled  at  Highgate,  where  he  practised  as  a  surgeon,  and 
soon  became  well  known  for  his  medical  skill,  not  only  in  that 
suburban  village,  but  also  in  London,  to  which  he  was  frequently 
called  in  important  consultations. 

He  first  lived  on  Highgate  Hill,  but  afterwards  removed  to  No.  3 
in  The  Grove,  the  house  being  the  central  one  in  the  illustration 
heading  this  chapter.  A  view  of  the  back  of  the  house,  showing  the 
room  which  he  raised  in  the  roof  for  the  study  of  the  Poet  Coleridge, 
is  given  opposite  page  8.  The  latter  engraving  is  from  a  drawing 
in  the  writer's  possession,  made  by  Amelia  Boyce,  in  the  year  1835, 
and  now  published  for  the  first  time. 

His  acquaintance  with  the  Poet  and  Philosopher,  S.  T.  Coleridge, 
which  has  made  the  name  of  James  Gillman  as  world-wide  known  as 
that  of  his  inmate,  guest  and  friend,  began  in  the  year  1816  in  this 
wise. 

Coleridge,  in  order  to  allay  the  pain  of  a  disease,  had  acquired 
the  habit  of  '  opium  eating '  in  the  form  of  taking  large  doses  of 
laudanum.  The  vice  became  one  of  which  he  could  not  break  himself, 
and  at  the  age  of  forty-three  he  at  last  perceived  that  his  only  hope  of 


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The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 


redemption  lay  in  a  voluntary  submission  of  his  enfeebled  will  to  the 
control  of  others,  and  he  had  apparently  just  strength  of  volition  to 
form  and  execute  the  necessary  resolve.  He  appears,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  have  consulted  a  physician  of  the  name  of  Adams,  who, 
on  the  gth  of  April,  1816,  put  himself  in  communication  with  Mr. 
Gillman  of  Highgate.  "  A  very  learned,  but  in  one  respect  an 
unfortunate  gentleman,  has,"  he  wrote,  "  applied  to  me  on  a  singular 
occasion.  He  has  for  several  years  been  in  the  habit  of  taking  large 
quantities  of  opium.  For  some  time  past  he  has  been  in  vain 
endeavouring  to  break  himself  of  it.  It  is  apprehended  his  friends 
are  not  firm  enough,  from  a  dread  lest  he  should  suffer  by  suddenly 
leaving  it  off,  though  he  is  conscious  of  the  contrary,  and  has  proposed 
to  me  to  submit  himself  to  any  regimen,  however  severe.  With  this 
view  he  wishes  to  fix  himself  in  the  house  of  some  medical  gentleman 
who  will  have  the  courage  to  refuse  him  any  laudanum,  and  under 
whose  assistance,  should  he  be  the  worse  for  it,  he  may  be  relieved." 
Would  such  a  proposal,  inquires  the  writer,  be  absolutely  inconsistent 
with  Mr.  Gillman's  family  arrangements  ?  He  would  not,  he  adds,  have 
proposed  it  "  but  on  account  of  the  great  importance  of  the  character 
as  a  literary  man.  His  communicative  temper  will  make  his  society 
very  interesting  as  well  as  useful."  Mr.  Gillman's  acquaintance  with 
Dr.  Adams  was  but  slight,  and  he  had  had  no  previous  intention  of 
receiving  an  inmate  into  his  house.  But  the  case  very  naturally 
interesting  him,  he  sought  an  interview  with  Dr.  Adams,  and  it  was 
agreed  that  the  latter  should  drive  Coleridge  to  Highgate  the  following 
evening.  At  the  appointed  hour,  on  the  loth  of  April,  1816,  however, 
Coleridge  presented  himself  alone,  and,  after  spending  the  evening  at 
Mr.  Gillman's,  left  him,  as,  even  in  his  then  condition,  he  left  most 
people  who  met  him  for  the  first  time,  completely  captivated  by  the 
amiability  of  his  manners  and  the  charm  of  his  conversation.  The 
next  day  Mr.  Gillman  received  from  him  a  letter,  finally  settling  the 
arrangement  to  place  himself  under  the  doctor's  care,  and  on  the 
following  Monday  Coleridge  presented  himself  at  Mr.  Gillman's, 
bringing  in  his  hand  the  proof  sheets  of  '  Christabel,'  now  printed  for 
the  first  time.* 

*  Mr.  Traill's  "  Coleridge." 


The  Gillmans  of  Plighgate. 


"  From  his  ninth  year  Coleridge  had  been  a  wanderer  and  a 
sojourner,  finding  *  no  city  to  dwell  in,'  and  now,  when  he  was  at  his 
wits'  end,  tossed  in  a  sea  of  troubles,  the  waves  suddenly  stilled,  and 
he  felt  that  he  had  reached  his  desired  haven.  His  first  sight  of  the 
Gillmans  seems  to  have  convinced  him  of  this,  and  his  prescience  was 
justified,  for  during  the  eighteen  years  of  life  that  remained  to  him 
their  house  was  his  home."* 

A  cool  and  peaceful  evening  after  the  storms  of  a  hot  and  feverish 
day.  Here,  on  the  brow  of  Highgate  Hill,  to  quote  Carlyle,  "  he  sat, 
looking  down  on  London  and  its  smoke-tumult,  like  a  sage  escaped 
from  the  inanity  of  life's  battle ;  attracting  towards  him  the  thoughts 
of  innumerable  brave  souls  still  engaged  there, — a  heavy-laden,  high- 
aspiring,  and  surely  much  suffering  man." 

He  began  his  residence  at  The  Grove,  Highgate,  simply  as  a 
temporary  patient,  but  before  three  months  had  passed  he  was 
inspired  to  write  thus  to  a  recent  acquaintance  who  had  done  him  a 
kindness : — 

"  If  I  omitted  this  due  acknowledgment,  I  should  think  myself 
less  deserving  of  the  fortunate  state  of  convalescence,  and  tranquil, 
yet  active  impulses,  which,  under  Providence,  I  owe  to  the  unrelaxed 
attention,  the  professional  skill,  and  above  all  to  the  continued  firm- 
ness and  affectionateness  of  the  medical  friend  whose  housemate  I 
have  been  for  the  last  three  months,  and  shall,  I  trust,  continue  to 
be  indefinitely."  f 

The  following  account  of  Coleridge's  life  at  Highgate  is  taken 
from  Professor  A.  Brandl's  "Life  of  Coleridge"  : — 

"  The  Gillmans  gave  our  poet  a  more  luxurious  refuge  at  Highgate 
than  he  had  had  with  the  kind  Morgans  at  Hammersmith.  They  were 
then  living  at  No.  3  in  The  Grove  and  had  a  portion  of  the  roof  raised 
in  order  to  gain  a  room  where  he  could  place  his  great  book  chests  and 

*  "Life  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,"  by  Mr.  J.  Dykes  Campbell.     1894. 

t  Letter  to  John  Gale,  8th  July,  1816,  "  Lippingcott's  Magazine,"  June,  1874. 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 


work  undisturbed.     His  windows  overlooked— and  overlook  still  —  a 
beautiful  view  of  the   Nightingale  Valley,  with   the   green   heights 
behind,   the  shady  walks  and  half-hidden  villas  of  Hampstead.     In 
the  depth  to  the  left  lies  the  great  metropolis — through  the  smoky 
cloud  of  which  many  a  soaring  tower  is  visible ;  while  the  sky  spreads 
forth  all  the  rich  colours  of  the  Western  sun.     The  Gillmans'  manner 
towards  him  was  all  that  was  sensible  and  hearty.     Their  grand- 
daughter, Mrs.  Henry  Watson  (St.  Leonard's  Vicarage,  Tring),  who 
admitted  me  with  utmost  kindness  to  the  family  traditions,  possesses 
portraits  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman — he  with  brown  eyes  and  hair  and 
manly  expression ;  she,  a  pretty  blonde,  with  rosy  cheeks  and  blue 
eyes.     It  is  easy  to  understand  that  with  these  good  people  Coleridge 
felt  himself  at  home  for  eighteen  long  years.     Mr.  Gillman  had  an 
extensive  practice ;  still  he  found  time  to  enter  gladly  and  eagerly 
into  the  philosophical  discussions  of  his  guest.      Before  this  (as  we 
have  seen)  he  had  written,  in  a  professional  way,  "  A  Dissertation  on 
the  Bite  of  a  Rabid  Animal."     Now  he  turned  to  Schelling's  compre- 
hensive speculations,  and  worked  out,  in  conjunction  with  Coleridge, 
a  *  Theory  of  Life '  (printed  1848),  seeking  in  it  an  idea  of  life  capable 
of  being  enrolled  in  the  sphere  of  natural  science.     Mrs.  Gillman  was 
a  good  listener,  but  first  and  foremost  she  was  an  excellent  manager ; 
their   servants   remained  with  them   for   years.     She   was   proud   of 
ministering  to  the  happiness  of  the  celebrated  and  much-to-be-pitied 
poet :  nor  did  she  forget  the  ornaments  of  life,  and  had  always  some 
of  his  favourite  plants — geraniums  and  myrtles — in  his  room.     No 
opium  entered  the  house  unless  prescribed  by  the  doctor  for  very 
severe  pains.    On  the  other  hand,  relations  and  friends  were  welcomed 
at  all  times.     Mrs.  Coleridge  came  for  Christmas,  1822,  and  after  that 
maintained  a  confidential  correspondence  with  Mrs.  Gillman,  in  so  far 
an  advantage  to  her  husband,  who,  when  he  did  venture  to  open  her 
letters,  was  usually  dispirited  for  days.    Lamb  dined  with  them  almost 
every   Sunday.      Strangers   also,    from    all   parts,  anxious   to   know 
Coleridge,  were  readily  introduced.     It  would  take  long  to  enumerate 
the  names  of  those  who  sought  him  ;    from    that  of  Emerson,  the 
brilliant  American  essayist,  to  that  of  Joseph  Green,  the  celebrated 
surgeon,  who  acted  almost  the  part  of  an  amanuensis  ;  from  Hookham 


io  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

Frere,  the  refined  ex-minister  and  Byron's  humorous  precursor,  to  the 
na'ive  and  often  over-enthusiastic  Thomas  Allsop,  who  would  willingly 
have  played  the  part  of  a  Boswell  if  he  had  had  the  talent  for  it. 
Dressed  all  in  black,  as  he  moved  through  house  and  garden,  Coleridge 
might  have  been  taken  for  a  clergyman.  He  shared  his  breakfast 
with  the  birds,  and  his  knowledge  with  his  friends,  without  greatly 
concerning  himself  about  either  class  of  guest.  On  being  asked  by 
Gillman's  son  (afterwards  the  Rev.  James  Gillman,  B.C.L.  Fellow  of 
St.  John's  College,  Oxford),  for  help  in  a  school  exercise,  he  was  known 
to  give  him  a  lecture  an  hour  long  on  the  profoundest  principles  of  the 
subject,  beginning  from  our  first  parents,  till  the  boy  took  care  not  to 
apply  to  him  again.  He  would  still  also  from  time  to  time  discourse 
so  enchantingly,  that  the  whole  circle  of  visitors  sat  silent,  and  hung 
more  or  less  bewitched  on  his  words.  The  trembling  of  his  limbs,  it 
is  true,  did  not  cease  ;  his  gait  remained  unsteady,  and  the  habit  of 
walking  first  on  one  side  of  his  companion  and  then  on  the  other, 
which  Hazlitt  had  remarked  even  at  Stowey,  never  left  him.  But  the 
tottering  limbs  became  rounder,  the  large  grey  eye  and  full  lips 
retained  a  childlike  expression,  and  his  luxuriant  white  hair  was  like 
a  crown  of  honour.  Wherever  he  appeared,  whether  in  the  flowery 
fields  or  woods  of  Highgate,  old  and  young  took  off  their  hats. 

"  It  is  well  known  how  Keats — already  with  the  seeds  of  con- 
sumption in  him — addressed  him  on  such  an  occasion  with  gushing 
veneration,  and  asked  to  be  allowed  to  press  his  hand.  Coleridge 
never  quitted  this  refuge  for  long.  He  went  regularly  every  summer 
to  the  nearest  seaside — Ramsgate — and  once,  in  1828,  when  the 
Gillmans  were  in  Paris,  he  accompanied  Wordsworth  on  a  visit  of 
three  weeks  to  the  Rhine.  Otherwise  he  remained  faithful  to  his 
beautiful  Highgate,  where  the  clock  of  the  Gothic  church  struck  the 
hours  of  his  increasing  age,  and  where  he  lived  to  the  last  in  dignified 
leisure."  * 

"From  1820  onwards  the  house  of  Mr.  Gillman  had  gradually 
acquired  a  unique  distinction,  as  a  rallying-point  for  intellectual 
activity.  The  residence  of  Coleridge  with  the  Gillmans  drew  to 

*  "Life  of  Coleridge,"  by  Prof.  Alois  Brandl,  translated  by  Lady  Eastlake. 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  \  \ 

Highgate  many  men  and  women  who  were  celebrated  in  their  several 
walks.  One  day  a  week  or  oftener  there  gathered  about  Coleridge  a 
select  band  of  young  men,  who  looked  up  to  him  as  to  a  '  master.' 
Among  them  were  Edward  Irving,  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  Arthur 
H.  Hallam,  Joseph  Henry  Green,  Julius  Hare  and  Coleridge's  nephew, 
H.  N.  Coleridge.  Men  of  an  older  generation  often  joined  this  weekly 
gathering,  and  of  these  there  wras  Basil  Montagu,  whose  estrangement 
from  Coleridge  in  1 8 1 1  did  not  forbid  a  genial  social  intercourse. 
Charles  Lamb  was  often  of  the  circle,  and,  on  rare  occasions  of  their 
visits  to  London,  Wordsworth  and  John  Wilson  were  at  Highgate. 
It  does  not  appear  that  Shelley  ever  met  Coleridge  at  Mr.  Gillman's 
or  elsewhere,  and  this  was  probably  due,  not  to  any  lack  of  apprecia- 
tion on  Shelley's  part,  for  he  described  him  as  '  a  hooded  eagle  among 
blinking  owls,'  but  to  the  circumstance  that  Shelley's  circle  among 
poets  was  that  of  Leigh  Hunt;  and  after  1817  the  editor  of  The 
Examiner  could  hardly  be  a  welcome  guest  or  sincere  disciple  where 
Coleridge  was  practically  in  the  position  of  the  honoured  host  and 
prophet." 

"  Coleridge's  attractions  as  a  talker  were  great,  but  in  the  days 
at  Highgate  they  were  probably  at  their  best.  The  only  satisfying 
record  of  Coleridge's  powers  in  conversation  is  the  volume  of  '  Table 
Talk,'  collected  by  H.  N.  Coleridge,  from  the  end  of  1822  to  the 
middle  of  July,  1834."* 

Lord  Hatherley  has  given  us  some  interesting  notes  of  the  con- 
versation of  Coleridge : — 

"  During  the  last  year  and  a  half  of  my  study  for  the  Bar  I  had 
also  received  much  kindness  from  the  late  Basil  Montagu,  Esq.,  and 
his  admirable  wife.  I  had  been  allowed  free  access  to  their  home  in 
Bedford  Square  on  any  evening  I  thought  fit  to  go,  when  it  was  their 
custom  to  receive  those  who  had  this  privilege  from  eight  to  ten. 
Thursday  was  the  only  day  on  which  these  receptions  did  not  take 
place,  for  every  Thursday  evening  was  spent  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Montagu 
at  Highgate,  in  the  company  of  Coleridge.  I  had  the  privilege, 

*  Mr.  Hall  Caine. 


1 2  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

through  Mr.  Montagu's  kindness,  of  frequently  accompanying  on  these 
pilgrimages,  and  I  entertain  most  lively  recollections  of  many  an 
evening  passed  there  of  the  highest  enjoyment  and  interest. 

"  It  is  well  known  that  Coleridge  poured  out  all  the  riches  of  his 
prodigious  memory  and  all  the  poetry  of  his  brilliant  imagination  to 
every  listener.  I  was  not  only  so  addressed  myself,  but  I  heard  the 
whole  of  the  poet-philosopher's  favourite  system  of  Polarites — the 
Prothesis,  the  Thesis,  the  Mesothesis,  and  Antithesis — showered  down 
on  a  young  lady  of  seventeen,  with  as  much  unction  as  he  afterwards 
expounded  it  to  Edward  Irving.  I  was  also  present  at  some  discus- 
sions between  Edward  Irving  and  Coleridge,  on  subjects  of  higher 
and  holier  import,  in  which  the  poetical  temperament  of  Irving  shone 
forth,  but  not  with  the  genial,  all-embracing  fervour  that  distinguished 
Coleridge."  * 

Before  taking  leave  of  Coleridge,  there  is  an  incident  connected 
with  a  visit  paid  to  him  by  Charles  Lamb,  which  so  essentially  belongs 
to  Highgate  that,  although  the  joke  is  somewhat  'time-honoured,'  it 
ought  to  find  a  place  here. 

Lamb  had  been  to  supper  with  Coleridge,  and  on  reaching  the 
stage  coach,  which  ran  from  the  Fox  and  Crown  to  Holborn  (fares, 
is.  6d.  outside,  2s.  in),  one  very  wet  night,  fortunately  found  one 
vacant  seat  inside,  and  whilst  congratulating  himself  on  his  good 
fortune  a  lady  opened  the  door  and  anxiously  asked,  "  Any  room 
inside  r "  "  No,  madam,"  said  Lamb,  "  quite  full ;  "  adding  with  a 
kind  of  blissful  remembrance,  "  it  was  the  last  bit  of  pudden  at  Mr. 
Gillman's  that  did  it ;  but  I  can't  speak  for  the  other  passengers." 

Coleridge  died  July  25th,  1834,  at  the  residence  of  Mr.  Gillman, 
The  Grove,  Highgate,  and  was  buried  at  Highgate  Old  Chapel,  a 
monument  being  erected  to  his  memory  in  the  new  Church  of  St. 
Michael  by  the  Gillmans.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  epitaph  to 
his  memory,  which  was  composed  by  Mr.  Gillman,  who,  after  a  close 
association  of  19  years,  spoke  with  authority. 

*  "Life  of  John  Sterling,"  by  Thomas  Cailyle. 


Bust   of  S.    T.    COLERIDGE, 

From  a  Cast  taken  after  death,  by  the  direction  of  James  Gillman,  Surgeon, 
now  in  the  possession  of  Alex.  W,  Gillrnan. 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  13 

Sacred  to  the  Memory 

of 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge, 

Poet,  Philosopher,  Theologian. 

This  truly  great  and  good  man  resided, 

For  the  last  nineteen  years  of  his  life, 

In  this  hamlet. 
He  quitted  "  the  body  of  this  death  " 

July  2$th,  1834, 

In  the  sixty-second  year  of  his  age. 
Of  his  profound  learning  and  discursive  genius 
His  literary  works  are  an  imperishable  record ; 

To  his  private  worth, 
His  social  and  Christian  virtues, 

James  and  Ann  Gillman, 

The  friends  with  whom  he  resided 

During  the  above  period,  dedicate  this  tablet. 

Under  the  pressure  of  a  long 

And  most  painful  disease 

His  disposition  was  unalterably  sweet  and  angelic; 
He  was  an  ever-during,  ever-loving  friend, 

The  gentlest  and  kindest  teacher, 
The  most  engaging  home  companion. 


"  O  framed  for  calmer  times  and  nobler  hearts! 
O  studious  poet,  eloquent  for  truth  ! 
Philosopher  contemning  wealth  and  death, 
Yet  docile,  childlike,  full  of  life  and  love, 
Here  on  this  monumental  stone  thy  friends  inscribe  thy  worth. 


Reader !  for  the  world  mourn. 
A  light  has  passed  away  from  the  earth  ; 
But  for  this  pious  and  exalted  Christian 
Rejoice,  and  again  I  say  unto  you,  rejoice. 


Ubi 

Thesaurus, 

Ibi 

Cor 

S.  T.  C. 


14  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

Writing  of  the  death  of  Coleridge,  Charles  Lamb  says  :  " .  .  . 
Never  saw  I  his  likeness,  nor  probably  the  world  can  see  it  again.  I 
seem  to  love  the  house  he  died  at  more  passionately  than  when  he 
lived.  I  love  the  faithful  Gillmans  more  than  while  they  exercised 
their  virtues  towards  him  living."* 

Coleridge's  gratitude  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman  was  thus  expressed 
in  a  paragraph  of  his  will  : — 

"  I  bequeath  my  pictures  and  engravings  to  James  and  Ann 
Gillman,  my  more  than  friends,  the  guardians  of  my  health,  happi- 
ness, and  interests,  during  the  fourteen!  years  of  my  life  that  I  have 
enjoyed  the  proofs  of  their  constant  zealous  and  disinterested  affection 
as  an  inmate  and  member  of  their  family." 

There  are  two  inaccurate  statements  which  are  made  by  some  of 
Coleridge's  biographers  which  the  author  of  this  work  deems  that  it 
is  due  to  his  grandfather's  and  Coleridge's  memory  should  be  corrected. 
One  is  that  Coleridge  was  never  thoroughly  cured  of  opium-eating, 
and  the  other  that  Coleridge  *  paid  for  board  and  lodging '  during 
the  eighteen  years  he  lived  in  Mr.  James  Gillman's  house. 

In  regard  to  the  first  statement :  • 

A  few  days  before  Coleridge  settled  at  Highgate,  in  1816,  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gillman,  in  which  he  detailed  with  frankness  the 
temptation  to  which  his  besetting  weakness  exposed  him,  of  acting  a 
deception,  of  which  prior  habits  of  rigid  truthfulness  made  it  impossible 
for  him  not  to  speak.  "  I  have  full  belief,"  he  wrote,  "  that  your 
anxiety  need  not  be  extended  beyond  the  first  week,  and  for  the  first 
week  I  shall  not,  I  must  not  be  permitted  to  leave  the  house,  except 
with  you.  Delicately  or  indelicately,  this  must  be  done,  and  both 
your  servants  and  the  assistants  must  receive  absolute  commands  from 
you."  A  more  resolute  determination  could  not  have  been  made  by  a 
man  whose  will  had  never  been  sapped  by  disease.  There  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  its  sincerity,  and  only  the  idlest  gossip  to  question  its 

*  From  "  Mary  Lamb,"  by  Mrs.  Alex.  Gilchrist,  page  252. 
t  This  will  was  made  by  Coleridge  four  years  before  his  death. 


CD 

5 


_O 

5 


03 
X3 

-P 

T3 

c 

CO 


CD 


o 
o 


* 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 


faithful  observance.  It  is  true  that  De  Quincey  said  that  "  Coleridge 
never  conquered  his  evil  habit;"  true,  too,  that  irresponsible  persons 
have  alleged  that  down  to  his  death  Coleridge  continued  to  obtain 
supplies  of  laudanum  surreptitiously  from  a  chemist  in  the  Tottenham 
Court  Road  ;  but  the  burden  of  proof  is  in  favour  of  Mr.  Gillman's 
clear  assurance  that  the  habit  was  eventually  overcome,  and  this 
assurance  has  just  received  unexpected  confirmation.  The  report  was 
that  the  doctor's  boy  procured  Coleridge  the  drug  when  he  went  to 
Town  weekly  for  other  medicines.  This  boy  —  a  boy  no  longer,  but 
now  one  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  Highgate  —  a  quiet,  truthful, 
much-respected  man,  Mr.  Thomas  Taylor,  until  lately  a  shoemaker  in 
the  North  Road  —  states  that  he  lived  a  long  while  with  Mr.  Gillman, 
"  that  he  never  procured  any  opium  for  Mr.  Coleridge,  nor  did  he  ever 
hear  of  his  alleged  habit  of  taking  it;"  but  he  added,  "He  was  a 
great  consumer  of  snuff,  and  I  used  to  bring  him  a  pound  of  Irish 
blackguard  (his  favourite  snuff)  at  a  time,  with  which  he  smothered 
himself."  * 

With  respect  to  the  second  inaccurate  statement  it  is  true  that 
in  that  first  letter  to  Mr.  Gillman,  Coleridge  stated,  in  these  terms, 
the  condition  on  which  he  proposed  to  become  an  inmate  of  his 
house  :  "  With  respect  to  pecuniary  remuneration,  allow  me  to  say  I 
must  not  at  least  be  suffered  to  make  any  addition  to  your  family 
expenses,  that  I  cannot  offer  anything  that  would  be  in  any  way 
adequate  to  my  sense  of  the  service;  for  that  indeed  there  could  not 
be  a  compensation,  as  it  must  be  returned  in  kind,  by  esteem  and 
grateful  affection." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  when  Coleridge  came  to  Highgate  as  a 
resident  patient  to  be  cured  of  opium  eating,  it  was  his  intention  to 
make  some  *  pecuniary  remuneration,'  and  on  that  expression  in  his 
letter  is  based  the  very  objectionable  and  inaccurate  remark  in  a  foot 
note  of  Mr.  Hall  Caine's  "  Life  of  Coleridge,"  that  "he  paid  for  board 
and  lodging  at  Gillman's  from  1816  to  1834."!  The  writer  of  this 
book  was  more  than  once  told  by  his  father,  the  Rev.  James  Gillman 

*  "  The  Histoiy  of  Highgate,"  by  Mr.  John  H.  Lloyd. 
t  Mr.  Hall  Caine's  "Life  of  Coleridge,"  page  108. 


1 6  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

(the  eldest  son  of  James  Gillman  of  Highgate),  but  who  died  previous 
to  the  publication  of  Mr.  Hall  Caine's  book,  that  though  Coleridge 
might  possibly  at  first  have  contributed  something  as  a  return  for  the 
medical  care  and  advice  which  he  received,  he  practically  lived  as  a 
guest  at  the  invitation  of  Mr.  Gillman  for  those  eighteen  years.* 
Besides  which  many  of  his  friends  were  weekly  entertained  at  dinner, 
&c.,  no  doubt  to  the  great  pleasure  and  edification  of  his  host  and 
hostess,  who,  in  addition,  endeavoured  to  relieve  Coleridge  as  far  as 
possible  of  all  anxiety  concerning  his  petty  expenses. f 

It  could  not  be  otherwise,  for  Coleridge  had  no  means  or  income 
out  of  which  to  make  any  '  pecuniary  remuneration,'  though  the 
writer's  father  has  said  that  probably  with  that  indifference  to 
mundane  affairs  with  which  most  real  geniuses  are  blest,  he  may,  and 
probably  was  under  the  impression  that  he  did  make  this  remuneration, 
from  which  happy  frame  of  mind  Mr.  Gillman,  who  was  celebrated 
for  his  kindness  to  all  poor  and  badly  off  patients,  no  doubt  never 
disillusioned  the  poet.  As  Mr.  Hall  Caine  himself  says  in  another 
place  :  "  The  Gillmans  were  attached  to  him  by  every  tie  of  esteem 
and  love,  and  the  day  must  have  been  dark  for  them  in  which  they 
could  have  beclouded  Coleridge's  life  with  one  thought  of  his  pecuniary 
indebtedness." 

Coleridge's  pecuniary  circumstances  may  be  judged  from  the 
following  extract  from  Mr.  J.  Dykes  Campbell's  "  Life  of  Coleridge," 
page  242  : — 

"  And  yet  in  this  spring  of  1819  he  (Coleridge)  must  have  been  in 
desperate  need  of  money,  for  he  had  been  unable  to  make  any 
remittance  to  his  wife  out  of  the  net  proceeds  of  his  lectures,  and  the 
fund  for  sending  Derwent  to  College  was  still  incomplete.  Next,  in 
the  summer  time,  came  the  bankruptcy  of  Rest  Fenner. 

*  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Rev.  James  Gillman  lived  in  his  father's  house  after 
leaving  the  University  of  Oxford  for  several  years  prior  to  Coleridge's  death,  and  must  have  been 
well  acquainted  with  his  father's  private  affairs.  He  was  probably  the  only  one  who  could  have 
known  the  facts  of  the  case  and  "  the  secret  jealously  guarded  by  his  (Coleridge's)  generous 
hosts,"  as  Mr.  Ernest  H.  Coleridge  puts  it  in  a  note  on  the  subject  in  his  recent  work.  His 
evidence  is  therefore  almost  indisputable,  as  all  modern  biographers  of  Coleridge,  including  even 
his  grandson,  could  not  even  have  ever  seen  Coleridge  or  his  host,  James  Gillman. 

t  The  same  facts  were  also  frequently  stated  to  the  author  by  Dr.  Seth  B.  Watson,  the 
editor  of  Coleridge's  "Theory  of  Life,"  published  in  1848. 


SAMUEL    TAYLOR    COLERIDGE, 

POET    AKC    PHILOSOPHER. 
(From  a  Drawing  by  C.  R.  Leslie,  R.A.,  in  the  possession  of  the  Author.} 


The  Gillmans  of  Htghgate.  \  7 

"  All  the  profits  from  the  sale  of  my  writings  (writes  Coleridge  to 
Allsop)  which  I  should  have  had,  and  which,  in  spite  of  the  accumu- 
lated disadvantages  under  which  the  works  were  published,  would 
have  been  considerable,  '  I  have  lost ;  and  not  only  so,  but  have  been 
obliged,  at  a  sum  larger  than  all  the  profits  of  my  lectures,  to  purchase 
myself  my  own  books,  and  the  half  copyrights  ...  I  have  with- 
drawn them  from  sale.' " 

And  again,  on  page  248  : — "  Out  of  the  dead-lock  he  (Coleridge) 
can  discern  but  one  way — it  is  not  a  new  one — that  a  few  friends  *  who 
think  respectfully  and  hope  highly  of  his  powers  and  attainments ' 
should  subscribe  for  three  or  four  years  an  annuity  of  about  ^200. 
Two-thirds  of  his  time  would  be  tranquilly  devoted  to  the  bringing 
out  of  the  four  minor  works,  one  after  the  other  ;  the  remainder  to  the 
completion  of  the  Great  Work  '  and  my  Christabel,  and  what  else  the 
happier  hour  might  inspire.'  Towards  this  scheme  Mr.  Green  has 
offered  ^30  to  £40  yearly  ;  another  young  friend  and  pupil  £50  ;  and 
he  thinks  he  can  rely  on  £10  to  £20  from  another.  Will  Allsop  advise 
him  ?  he  asks,  and  decide  if  without  '  moral  degradation  '  the  statement 
now  made,  but  in  a  compressed  form,  might  be  circulated  among  the 
right  sort  of  people  ? " 

It  is  true  that  for  five  years  from  1825  to  1830,  Coleridge  received 
a  pension  from  George  IV.'s  private  purse  of  100  guineas  per  annum, 
but  that  ceased  on  the  king's  death.  This  sum,  and  what  little  he 
earned  from  his  lectures,  writings  and  books,  which  latter,  owing  to 
the  unfortunate  failure  of  his  publisher,*  was  not  much,  was  probably 
all  required  for  the  support  of  his  wife.  It  was  not  till  after  Cole- 
ridge's death  that  his  writings  were  appreciated  and  that  there  was 
much  sale  for  them,  with,  perhaps,  the  exception  of  the  "  Aids  to 
Reflection."  There  was  an  annual  payment  of  £26.  55.  6d.,  which 
Coleridge  had  to  make  on  his  life  insurance  policy,  to  meet  which  he 
often  had  to  borrow  the  money  from  his  friends.f  This  life  policy 
realised  £2,560  on  Coleridge's  death,  which  went  to  his  widow.J 

*  On  May  8th,  1825,  Coleridge  writes  to  his  nephew  concerning  his  publisher,  "I  trusted 
him,  and  lost  £i,  100  clear,  and  was  forced  to  borrow  ^"150  in  order  to  buy  up  my  own  books  and 
half  copyrights,  a  shock  which  has  embarrassed  me  in  debt  (thank  God,  to  one  person  only)  even 
to  this  amount."— Prof.  Alois  Brandl's  "  Life  of  Coleridge,"  page  353. 

t  See  Mr.  Dykes  Campbell's  "  Life  of  Coleridge,"  page  211..  %  Ibid.,  page  279. 


1 8  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

The  payment  of  this  pension  of  100  guineas  per  annum  was 
stopped  after  1830,  whereupon  Mr.  Gillman  wrote  the  following  letter 
to  the  Times,  which  appeared  in  the  issue  of  that  paper  on  June  4, 
1831  :— 

"  Sir, — In  consequence  of  a  paragraph  which  appeared  in  the 
Times  of  this  day,  I  think  it  is  expedient  to  state  the  fact  respecting 
Mr.  Coleridge  as  it  actually  is.  On  the  sudden  suppression  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Literature,  with  the  extinction  of  the  honours  and 
annual  honoraria  of  the  Royal  Associateships,  a  representation  in 
Mr.  Coleridge's  behalf  was  made  to  Lord  Brougham,  who  promptly 
and  kindly  recommended  the  case  to  Lord  Grey's  consideration.  The 
result  of  the  application  was,  that  a  sum  of  ^200,  the  one  moiety  to 
be  received  forthwith,  and  the  other  the  year  following,  by  a  private 
grant  from  the  Treasury,  was  placed  at  Mr.  Coleridge's  acceptance  ; 
but  he  felt  it  his  duty  most  respectfully  to  decline  it,  though  with 
every  grateful  acknowledgment,  of  the  prompt  and  courteous  attention 
which  his  case  had  received  from  their  Lordships. 

"  I  remain,  Sir,  yours  respectfully, 

"JAMES  GILLMAN. 
"Highgate,  June  3." 

Stuart,  however,  wrote  to  King  William's  son,  the  Earl  of  Munster, 
pointing  out  the  hardship  entailed  on  Coleridge,  whom  he  describes 
as  old  and  infirm,  and  without  other  means  of  subsistence.  He  begs 
the  Earl  to  lay  the  matter  before  his  royal  father.  To  this  a  prompt 
reply  came,  excusing  the  King  on  account  of  his  *  very  reduced 
income,'  but  promising  that  the  matter  shall  be  submitted  to  His 
Majesty. 

Since  the  foregoing  pages  were  written  and  in  type,  a  very  kind 
acknowledgment  of  the  hospitality  Coleridge  received  at  Highgate 
has  been  made  by  Mr.  Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge,  the  poet's  grandson, 
in  his  new  work,  "  The  Letters  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge."  The 
following  extract  is  taken  from  a  notice  of  the  book  in  the  Daily  News 
of  April  27,  1895,  and  gives  also  the  reviewer's  remarks. 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 


"  Finally  Coleridge  was  destined  to  find  such  help  as  all  his 
failings  required  at  the  hands  of  the  Gillmans,  who,  in  1816,  took 
him  into  their  house  at  Highgate,  and  kept  him  there  to  the  end  of 
his  days,  an  honoured  and  a  cherished  guest.  His  present  editor 
shows  a  becoming  sense  of  the  family  obligation  to  that  most  worthy 
pair  : 

*  With  Coleridge's  name  and  memory  must  ever  be  associated  the 
names  of  James  and  Anne  Gillman.  It  was  beneath  the  shelter  of 
their  friendly  roof  that  he  spent  the  last  eighteen  years  of  his  life,  and 
it  was  to  their  wise  and  loving  care  that  the  comparative  fruitfulness 
and  well-being  of  those  years  were  due.  They  thought  themselves 
honoured  by  his  presence,  and  he  repaid  their  devotion  with  unbounded 
love  and  gratitude.  Friendship  and  loving  kindness  followed  Coleridge 
all  the  days  of  his  life.  What  did  he  not  owe  to  Poole,  to  Southey  for 
his  noble  protection  of  his  family,  to  the  Morgans  for  their  long-tried 
faithfulness  and  devotion  to  himself?  But  to  the  Gillmans  he  owed 
the  "crown  of  his  cup  and  garnish  of  his  dish,"  a  welcome  which 
lasted  till  the  day  of  his  death.  Doubtless  there  were  chords  in  his 
nature  which  were  struck  for  the  first  time  by  these  good  people,  and 
in  their  presence  and  by  their  help  he  was  a  new  man.  But,  for  all 
that,  their  patience  must  have  been  inexhaustible,  their  loyalty  unim- 
peachable, their  love  indestructible.  Such  friendship  is  rare  and 
beautiful  and  merits  a  most  honourable  remembrance/ 

"  And  Coleridge  himself  expressed  his  gratitude,  towards  the 
close  of  his  life,  in  one  of  the  finest  letters  in  these  volumes  :  * 

'1830. 

'  Dear  Mrs.  Gillman,—  Wife  of  the  friend  who  has  been  more 
than  a  brother  to  me,  and  who  have  month  after  month,  yea,  hour 
after  hour,  for  how  many  successive  years,  united  in  yourself  the 
affections  and  offices  of  an  anxious  friend  and  tender  sister  to  me-ward  ! 
May  the  Father  of  Mercies,  the  God  of  Health  and  all  Salvation,  be 
your  reward  for  your  great  and  constant  love  and  loving  kindness  to 

*  The  original  of  this  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Henry  Watson  (late  of  St.  Leonard's 
Vicarage,  Tring,  Herts),  granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Gillman  and  sister  to  the  compiler  of  this  book. 


2O  The  Gilltnans  of  Highgate. 

me,  abiding  with  you  and  within  you,  as  the  Spirit  of  guidance, 
support,  and  consolation  !  And  may  His  Grace  and  gracious  Provi- 
dence bless  James  and  Henry  for  your  sake,  and  make  them  a  blessing 
to  you  and  their  father.  And  though  weighed  down  by  a  heavy 
presentiment  respecting  my  own  sojourn  here,  I  not  only  hope  but 
have  a  steadfast  faith  that  God  will  be  your  reward,  because  your 
love  to  me,  from  first  to  last  has  begun  in,  and  been  caused  by,  what 
appeared  to  you  a  translucence  of  the  love  of  the  good,  the  true,  and 
the  beautiful  from  within  me, — as  a  relic  of  glory  gleaming  through 
the  turbid  shrine  of  my  mortal  imperfections  and  infirmities,  as  a 
Light  of  Life  seen  within  "  the  body  of  this  Death," — because  in 
loving  me  you  loved  our  Heavenly  Father  reflected  in  the  gifts  and 

influences  of  His  Holy  Spirit. 

<S.  T.  COLERIDGE/ 

"  Who  will  give  us  a  set  of  biographies  of  the  great  friends  of 
great  men — the  Gillmans,  the  Unwins,  the  Abneys  ?  Coleridge  was 
relieved  of  all  care.  The  most  famous  people  came  from  all  parts  to 
listen  to  the  outpourings  of  his  wonderful  mind — not  always  with  a 
becoming  tenderness  and  reverence,  as  we  know  by  the  memorable 
example  of  Carlyle.  In  1834,  still  in  the  same  harbour  of  refuge,  he 
gently  passed  away."  * 

In  the  year  1827  Mr.  Gillman  undertook,  in  conjunction  with  Mr. 
Jameson,  a  friend  of  Hartley  Coleridge's  and  the  husband  of  Mrs. 
Jameson,  the  well-known  writer  on  Art,  to  superintend  for  Coleridge  an 
edition  of  his  Poems,  to  be  published  by  Pickering.  This  edition  was 
published  in  1828  in  three  volumes  (though  it  was  advertised  to  appear 
in  four),  and  only  three  hundred  copies  were  printed,  which  were  all 
sold  before  October  in  that  year.f 

*  Daily  News,  April  27,  1895. 

t  Mr.  Ernest  H.  Coleridge,  ia  a  note  to  his  "Letters  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,"  page  658,  says 
that  Mr.  Gillman  received  the  profits  of  this  edition,  and  refers,  no  doubt,  as  his  authority  to  a 
letter  written  by  S.  T.  Coleridge  to  Mr.  Stuart,  editor  of  the  Morning  Post,  on  Feb.  24,  1827, 
which  is  published  in  Mr.  J.  Dykes  Campbell's  "  Life  of  Coleridge,"  on  page  263  of  that  book. 
The  wording  of  this  letter  does  not  fairly  seem  to  imply  this  meaning  ;  it  only  states,  "  That  is  to 
say,  I  have  given  all  these  poems,  as  far  as  this  edition  is  concerned,  to  Mr.  Gillman,"  he  having,  in 
conjunction  with  Mr.  Jameson,  "  undertaken  to  superintend  the  edition."  If  Mr.  Gillman  had 
received  any  profits  from  these  300  copies  it  would  undoubtedly  have  been  known  in  the  Gillman 
family,  and  the  surviving  descendants  would  have  heard  of  the  same,  which  they  never  have. 
(See  Note  on  page  16.) 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  2oA 

As  has  already  been  mentioned,  many  were  the  literary  men  of 
the  day  who  received  invitations  to  Mr.  Gillman's  house.  Amongst 
others  invited  by  Coleridge  was  Mr.  Daniel  Stuart,  the  editor  of  the 
Morning  Post,  who  received  the  following  letter,  dated  May  i3th,  1816, 
in  which  Coleridge  freely  expresses  his  opinion  of  his  host  and  hostess :  * 

"  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman  will  be  happy  to  have  you  share  in  our 
family  dinner,  and  if  you  will  come  early  I  can  lead  you  round  some 
most  delicious  walks.  You  will  like  Mr.  Gillman.  He  is  a  man  of  a 
strong,  fervid,  and  agile  intellect,  with  such  a  master  passion  for  Truth, 
that  his  most  abstracted  Verities  assume  a  character  of  Veracity. 
And  his  excellent  Wife  it  must  be  impossible  not  to  love  and  respect, 
if  a  Balance  and  Harmony  of  powers  and  qualities  unified,  and 
spiritualized  by  a  native  feminine  Fineness  of  character,  render  woman- 
hood amiable  and  respectable.  I  have  known  many  persons  whose 
characters  are  so  far  harmonized  that  their  faults  are  balanced  by 
counteracting  virtues,  and  vice  versa  :  but  in  this  woman  it  is  a  Balance 
of  Positives,  of  Virtues  modified  by  Virtues.  In  serious  truth,  I  have 
ample  reason  to  be  most  grateful  to  Providence  for  the  chance  (and 
chance  it  mainly  was  which  placed  me  under  their  friendly  Roof),  and 
the  Hope  already  dawns  purple  on  my  mental  eye,  and  as  it  were 
minutely  spreads  and  deepens  its  Lights  of  Promise,  themselves  not 
only  Pledges,  but  portions  and  precursors  of  the  Brightness  promised, 
that  Mr.  Gillman  both  as  companionable  Friend,  and  as  skilful  and 
thinking  Physician,  will  restore  to  his  natural  self. 

"Your  obliged  and  affecte  fd    S.  T.  COLERIDGE." 

After  living  in  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman's  house  for  more  than  thirteen 
years  Coleridge  expresses  himself  further  concerning  his  friends  : 

"  October  2oth,  1829. 

"  Of  our  fellow  men  we  are  bound  to  judge   comparatively — of 
ourselves   only,  by  the   ideal.     Now  verily,  judging  comparatively  I 

*  This  letter,  in  a  shorter  and  somewhat  different  form,  is  given  in  Mr.  Ernest  H.  Coleridges' 
"Letters  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,"  ii.  665,  from  which  it  is  reprinted  in  this  book  on  page  23,  but 
since  that  page  was  printed  another  copy  of  the  original  letter  has  come  into  the  author's  hands, 
which  he  has  deemed  it  right  to  give  as  well.  The  letters,  &c.,  on  this  and  the  two  following  pages 
have  also,  with  the  foregoing,  at  the  moment  of  issuing  this  work,  been  furnished  to  the  compiler 
by  Mrs.  H.  G.  Watson,  of  Great  Staughton  Vicarage,  Hunts,  and  are  here  printed  by  the  kind 
permission  of  Mr.  Ernest  H.  Coleridge,  the  owner  of  the  copyright  of  S.  T.  Coleridge's  Letters. 


2OB  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

never  did  know  the  Master  and  Mistress  of  a  Household,  and  the  House- 
hold in  consequence  so  estimable  and  so  amiable  as  the  Gillman's  ! 
The  general  Hospitality,  without  the  least  ^//"-indulgence,  or  self- 
respecting  expenses,  compared  with  their  income ;  the  respectability 
and  even  elegance  of  all  the  appearances  ;  the  centrality  to  whatever  is 
good  and  love-worthy  in  the  whole  neighbourhood,  old  and  young ; 
the  attachment  and  cheerfulness  of  the  servants,  and  the  innocence 
and  high  tone  of  principle  which  reign  throughout,  would  really  be  a 
very  unusual  combination,  even  though  Mrs.  Gillman  herself  had  been 
a  less  finely  natured  and  lady-like  Being  than  she  is.  Would  to  God 
that  I  had  Health  and  Opportunity  to  add  5  or  6  hundred  a  year  to 
remove  all  anxious  thoughts, — and  that  I  could  but  render  it  possible 
and  advisable  for  dear  Mr.  Gillman  to  have  a  two  months'  tour  whither 
he  liked  every  year  !  God  bless  them  !  "  S.  T.  C." 

The  evenings  at  Highgate  were  brightened,  not  only  with  Literary 
and  Philosophic  conversation  of  the  highest  order,  but  also  with  the 
sister  art,  Music,  which  elicits  these  remarks  in  one  of  Coleridge's  letters: 

"  1 824.  What  seems  to  me  wanting  in  our  fashionable  vocal  music 
is  Eloquence.  As  oratory  is  Passion  in  the  service  of  Reason,  so 
should  vocal  music  be  Passion  connective  in  the  service  of  Passion — 
Precipitandus  est  liber  spiritus.  If  there  were  as  much  Spirit  and 
Liberty,  as  Feeling  and  Sweetness  in  her  singing,  Mrs.  Gillman  would 
excel  to  my  judgment  all  the  singers  I  have  ever  heard.  Oratory — 
Passion  in  the  service  of  Reasoning  fusing  the  Links  of  connection,  so 
as  to  soften  away  the  Angles,  and  fill  up  the  interspaces  without 
destroying  the  distinctness.  Vocal  Music — Connection  in  the  service 
of  Passion,  giving  it  at  once  order  and  Progression.  "  S.  T.  C." 

Of  Mrs.  Gillman's  other  gifts  Coleridge  penned  this  beautiful 
description  in  1832,  as  a  note  to  his  Poem,  entitled  "  Inscription  for  a 
fountain  on  a  Heath": 

"  This  fountain  is  an  exact  emblem  of  what  Mrs.  Gillman  was 
by  Nature,  and  still  would  be,  if  the  exhaustion  by  casualties  and 
anxious  duties,  and  hope  surviving  hopes,  had  not  been  too,  too  dis- 
proportionate to  the  *  tiny '  tho'  never-failing  spring  of  reproductive 
life  at  the  botton  of  the  pure  Basin.  No  Drouth,  no  impurity  from 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  20° 

without,  no  alien  ingredient  in  its  own  composition,  it  was  indeed  a 
Crystal  Fount  of  Water  undefiled.  But  the  demand  has  been  beyond 
the  supply  !  the  exhaustion  in  merciless  disproportion  to  the  reproduc- 
tion !  But  God  be  praised  !  it  is  immortal,  and  will  shoot  all  its  bright 
column  of  living  Waters,  where  its  God  will  be  the  Sun,  whose  light 
reflects  !  and  its  place  in  Christ,  the  containing  and  protecting  Basin."* 

In  the  following  year,  being  the  year  before  Coleridge's  death,  he 
writes  to  the  Rev.  James  Gillman,  his  host's  eldest  son,  then  recently 
ordained,  in  a  letter  of  good  counsel  and  advice,  these  words : — 

"  That  your  Father  is  the  Friend  of  a  most  important  portion  of 
my  Life,  and  your  Mother  a  most  dear  and  holy  name  to  me,  a  blessing 
which  plays  like  an  auspicious  flame  on  my  nightly  sacrifice  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving.  "  S.  T.  C." 

One  of  the  last  of  Coleridge's  expressions  of  gratitude  to  and 
appreciation  of  his  "  Friends  "  is  to  be  found  in  the  following  letter 
sent  with  a  New  Years  gift  to  Mrs.  Dinah  Knowe,  probably  the  wife 
or  mother  of  Knowe,  for  many  years  Mr.  Gillman's  coachman  : 

"January  ist,  1834. 

"  I  have  it  not  in  my  power  nor  is  it  within  my  means  to  offer 
anything  fit  to  be  called  a  New  Years  Gift,  but  I  hope  that  Dinah 
Knowe  will  accept  the  enclosed  trifle,  as  an  acknowledgment  of  her 
late  dutiful  and  affectionate  attentions  to  Mr.  Gillman  during  his 
illness,  and  no  less  to  her  dear  Mistress,  the  best  of  good  women,  Mrs. 
Gillman.  From  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman's  Friend  and  Housemate, 

"  S.  T.  COLERIDGE." 

There  are  some  letters  addressed  to  Coleridge  which  he  desired 
should  be  preserved  as  testimonies  to  the  worth  of  his  "  Friends ;" 
amongst  others  is  one  from  Allston,  the  American  artist,  who  painted 
and  presented  to  Coleridge  the  picture  of  the  Horse  Fair  in  Spain, 
mentioned  in  Emerson's  Visit  to  Highgate,  wherein  the  latter  relates 
the  anecdote  of  the  celebrated  picture  dealer  and  connoisseur,  Montague, 
mistaking  the  painting  for  an  original  Titian,  t 

*  The  original  of  this  Note  is  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Henry  G.  Watson. 
t  This  Painting  is  now  in  the  Author's  possession. 


2OD  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

Allston  writes  to  Coleridge,  October  5,  1816  : 

"  Pray  tell  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman  how  grateful  I  feel  for  their  kind- 
ness. Mrs.  G.  has  a  gentleness  and  delicacy  of  feeling,  which  so 
temper  her  inflexible  love  of  right  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  love  virtue 
in  her.  And  in  Mr.  G.  I  have  found  strength  of  mind  and  manly 
integrity  which  command  both  my  respect  and  esteem.  You  who 
know  me  know  how  I  must  appreciate  them." 

Leslie  the  artist,  afterwards  Professor  of  Painting  to  the  Royal 
Academy,  who  sketched  the  portraits  of  Coleridge  and  James  Gillman 
given  in  this  work,  writes  to  Coleridge,  probably  in  the  year  1816, 
when  he  made  those  drawings,  and  to  which  he  refers  : 

"  I  forgot  to  ask  you  if  you  would  like  to  have  the  sketch  I  made 
yesterday  framed.  I  shall  not  attempt  a  copy  of  it,  in  which  I  am 
almost  sure  of  not  succeeding. 

"  Mrs.  Gillman  has  in  the  kindest  manner  offered  to  sit  again  at 
any  time,  and  as  the  pleasure  I  am  sure  she  always  takes  in  the  act  of 
obliging  has  removed  in  a  great  measure  my  apprehensions  of  being 
troublesome  to  her,  I  shall  most  gladly  avail  myself  of  so  valuable  a 
study  as  that  of  her  features.  While  she  was  performing  last  night 
those  beautiful  Hymns,  I  watched  her  face  (unobserved  by  her),  and 
the  recollection  of  some  of  its  expressions,  which  were  as  heavenly  as 
her  voice,  suggested  to  me  the  idea  of  painting  a  St.  Cecilia. 
"  I  am,  Dear  Sir,  Yours  devotedly, 

"CHAS.  R.  LESLIE." 

One  more  extract  deserves  to  be  here  printed ;  it  is  from  a  letter  by 
Dr.  Anster,  Regius  Professor  of  Civil  Law  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin  : 

"  I  never  met  a  more  true-hearted,  single-minded,  or  genuine 
nature  than  Mr.  Gillman's.  The  most  entire  frankness,  plain  dealing, 
open  heartedness, — and  this  with  the  utmost  delicacy  and  feeling  in 
every  movement  of  his  mind. 

"  His  devotion  to  Mr.  Coleridge  was  but  a  manifestation  of  his 
general  kindness,  and  I  almost  think  some  of  Coleridge's  sufferings 
and  privations  were  providentially  permitted  that  the  world  might  be 
shewn  such  a  lesson  of  faithful  friendship  as  was  taught  in  the  relation 
of  those  two  good  men  whose  names  must  never  be  disunited." 


JAMES    GILLMAN,    Esq., 

OF    HIGHGATE,   SURGEOH. 
(From  a  Drawing  by  C.  R.  Leslie,  R.A.,  in  the  year  1816.^ 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  2 1 

In  July,  1828,  Mr.  Gillman  accompanied  as  their  medical  adviser 
the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  St.  Albans  on  a  continental  tour,  visiting 
Paris  and  the  principal  cities  of  Belgium,  &c.  Of  this  tour,  which  of 
course  was  made  by  road,  being  before  the  existence  of  railways,  he 
has  left  an  interesting  diary,  addressed  to  his  wife,  which  commenced 
as  follows: — "This  morning  we  started  from  Stratton  Street  (Piccadilly, 
London),  at  20  minutes  past  8  o'clock.  The  party  consisted  of  the 
Duke  and  Duchess,  who  led  the  way  in  their  Chariot  and  four  in  their 
usual  rich  liveries,  next  in  order  was  a  carriage  and  four  much  laden,  in 
which  was  Lady  D.  K.  and  Miss  G.,  next  and  last  followed  the  Doctor's 
Carriage,  a  landau  open  and  more  desirable  to  me  and  therefore  more 
pleasant  in  which  was  your  humble  Serv*.  with  Miss  G.'s  brother  with 
a  servant  appointed  to  me  for  my  use.  This  cavalcade  looked  well 
for  the  morning  was  fine  and  promising,  and  so  we  proceeded  down 
St.  James  Street,  causing  much  gazing  and  admiration  through  the 
Park  to  the  first  stage,  where  the  Duke's  Horses  left  us  and  we 
proceeded  with  post-horses  to  Sittingbourne." 

James  Gillman  commenced,  in  the  year  1836,  to  write  the  "Life 
of  Coleridge,"  which  was  to  be  completed  in  two  volumes.  The  first 
volume  was  published  in  1838,  by  William  Pickering,  London,  but 
the  second  was  never  finished,  the  author  some  short  time  before  his 
death,  in  the  following  year  (1839),  finding  his  health  broken  and  his 
end  probably  drawing  near,  destroyed  the  materials  for  this  volume, 
no  doubt  actuated  to  some  extent  by  the  delicate  position  in  which 
he  was  placed  in  reference  to  Coleridge's  family,  in  recording  his  life 
during  the  many  years  circumstances  had  compelled  him  to  live  under 
Mr.  Gillman' s  roof.  That  this  volume  was  nearly  completed  is  shown 
from  the  fact  that  Pickering,  the  publisher,  announced  it  as  'just 
ready,'  and  Mr.  Prentiss,  the  American,  speaks  of  the  delight  with 
which  he  heard  portions  of  the  second  volume  read  to  him  by  Mrs. 
Gillman. 

James  Gillman  died  in  the  year  1839,  or  five  years  after  the 
decease  of  Coleridge,  at  Ramsgate,  where  he  was  buried,  but  a 
monument,  similar  in  every  respect  to  that  which  he  erected  to 
Coleridge  in  St.  Michael's  Church,  Highgate,  was  placed  on  the 


2  2  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

same  wall  near  thereto,  with  the  following  inscription,  which  also 
records  the  death  of  his  second  son,  Henry  Anthony,  and  of  his 
widow,  Ann  Gillman  : — 

Sacred 

To  the  memory  of 

James  Gillman  surgeon 

(The  friend  of  S.  T.  Coleridge) 

For  many  years  an  eminent  practitioner 

In  this  place, 

He  died  at  Ramsgate, 

Where  his  remains  are  interred, 

On  \st  June,   1839, 

In  the  57  year  of  his  age. 

While  on  earth,  his  integrity  of  heart 

And  generosity  of  character 

Gained  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  men, 

His  Christian  faith  has,  we  humbly  trust, 

Through  the  merits  of  the  Saviour, 
Obtained  the  promise  of  a  better  inheritance. 

"  Mercy  !  for  praise — to  be  forgiven  for  fame 
He  asked,  and  hoped  through  Christ;  do  Ihou  the  same!" 

Also  of  Henry  Anthony  his  second  son, 

Who  died  May  $\st   1858,  aged  44, 
And  is  interred  in  the  adjacent  Cemetery. 

Also  of  Ann  Gillman, 

Widow  of  the  above  James 

Died  August  \th  1860  aged  81 

Buried  at  Ramsgate. 

A  most  devoted  Wife  and  Mother,  a  firm  friend, 

A  kind  Neighbour,  a  sincere  Christian. 

Valete  !  sed  non  sEternum. 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  23 

The  memory  of  James  Gillman,  surgeon,  lived  long  after  his 
death  amongst  the  poor  of  Highgate. 

The  author  paid  a  visit  to  the  church  and  hamlet  about  the 
year  1875,  or  nearly  forty  years  after  his  death,  and  found  (though 
the  informants  were  not  aware  of  the  author's  relationship)  that  the 
recollection  of  the  various  kindnesses  and  gratuitous  medical  care  of 
the  poor  was  still  fresh  in  the  memory  of  many,  or  had  been  told  from 
parent  to  child. 

He  was  honest  and  straightforward  to  a  fault.  During  a  'high 
feud5  which  divided  the  parishioners  of  Highgate  in  1822,  on  the 
question  of  whether  the  old  chapel  which  had  fallen  into  disrepair, 
belonged  to  the  inhabitants  or  to  the  Governors  of  the  Grammar 
School,  Coleridge  wrote  as  follows  to  a  friend : — 

"  Our  friend  Gillman  sees  the  factious  nature  and  origin  of  the 
proceedings  in  so  strong  a  light,  and  feels  so  indignantly,  that  I  am 
constantly  afraid  of  his  honesty  spirting  out  to  his  injury.  If  I  had 
the  craft  of  a  Draughtsman,  I  would  paint  Gillman  in  the  character  of 
Honesty,  levelling  a  pistol  (with  *  Truth '  on  the  barrel)  at  Sutton,  in 
the  character  of  Modern  Reform,  and  myself  as  a  Dutch  Mercury, 
with  rod  in  hand,  hovering  aloft,  and  pouring  water  into  the  touch- 
hole.  The  superscription  might  be  '  Pacification,'  a  little  finely 
pronounced  on  the  first  syllable." 

In  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Daniel  Stuart,  the  editor  of  the  Morning 
Post,  dated  May  13,  1816,  Coleridge  says  : — 

"  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gillman  will  be  most  happy  to  see  you  to  share  in 
a  family  dinner  and  spend  the  evening  with  us,  and  if  you  will  come 
early  I  can  show  you  some  most  delicious  walks.  You  will  like  Mr. 
Gillman.  He  is  a  man  of  strong,  fervid  and  agile  intellect,  with  such 
a  master  passion  for  truth  that  his  most  abstracted  verities  assume  a 
character  of  veracity.  And  his  wife  it  will  be  impossible  not  to 
respect,  if  a  balance  and  harmony  of  powers  and  qualities,  unified  and 
spiritualised  by  a  native  fineness  of  character,  render  womanhood 
amiable  and  respectable.  In  serious  truth  I  have  much  reason  to  be 


24  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

most  grateful  for  the  choice  and  chance  which  has  placed  me  under 
their  hospitable  roof.  I  have  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Gillman,  as  friend  and 
as  physician,  will  succeed  in  restoring  me  to  my  natural  self."  * 

In  "Coleridge's  Letters,  Conversations  and  Recollections,"  edited 
by  Thomas  Allsop,  his  hostess,  Mrs.  Ann  Gillman  is  also  several 
times  mentioned. 

In  1820  Coleridge  writes  : 

"  Mrs.  Gillman,  who  has  always  felt  a  sort  of  lofty,  yet  refined, 
enthusiasm  respecting  the  relations  of  an  only  sister  to  her  brothers. 
Of  all  women  I  ever  knew,  Mrs.  G.  is  the  woman  who  seems  to  have 
been  framed  by  Nature  for  a  heroine  is  that  rare  species  of  love  which 
subsists  in  a  tri-unity  of  the  heart,  the  moral  sense,  and  the  faculty, 
corresponding  to  what  Spurzheim  calls  the  organ  of  ideality.  What 
in  other  women  is  refinement  exists  in  her  as  by  implication,  and, 
a  fortiori,  in  a  native  fineness  of  character.  She  often  represents  to 
my  mind  the  best  parts  of  the  Spanish  Santa  Teresa,  ladyhood  of 
nature." 

Again,  in  the  same  year  : 

"  Before  I  opened  your  letter,  or  rather  before  I  gave  it  to  my  best 
sister,  and,  under  God,  best  comforter,  to  open,  a  heavy,  a  very  heavy 
affliction  came  upon  me  with  all  the  aggravations  of  surprise,  sudden 
as  a  peal  of  thunder  from  a  cloudless  sky." 

In  the  following  year  : 

"  In  Mrs.  Gillman  I  have  always  admired,  what  indeed  I  have 
found  more  or  less  an  accompaniment  of  womanly  excellence  wherever 
found,  a  high  opinion  of  her  own  sex  comparatively,  and  a  partiality 
for  female  society.  I  know  that  her  strongest  prejudices  against 
individual  men  have  originated  in  their  professed  disbelief  of  such  a 
thing  as  female  friendship,  or  in  some  similar  brutish  forgetfulness 
that  woman  is  an  immortal  soul ;  and  as  to  all  parts  of  the  female 
character,  so  chiefly  and  especially  to  the  best,  noblest,  and  highest — 

*  "  Letters  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge."     Edited  by  Ernest  H.  Coleridge.     London,  1895. 
Page  665. 


Mrs.   ANN    GILLMAN, 

OF    HIGHGATE. 
(From  an  Oil  Painting  on  Copper  by  Maria  Spilsbury.j 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  25 

to  the  germs  and  yearnings  of  immortality  in  the  man.  I  have  much 
to  say  on  this,  and  shall  now  say  it  with  comfort,  because  I  can  think 
of  it  as  a  pure  Question  of  Thought." 

After  a  visit  to  Ramsgate  for  change  of  air,  &c.  : 

"  First,  it  will  give  you  so  much  real  pleasure  to  see  my  improved 
looks  and  how  very  well  Mrs.  Gillman  has  come  back.  I  need  not  tell 
you,  that  your  sister  cannot  be  dearer  to  you — and  you  are  no  ordinary 
brother — than  Mrs.  Gillman  is  to  me ;  and  you  will  therefore  readily 
understand  me  when  I  say,  that  I  look  at  the  manifest  and  (as  it  was 
gradual)  I  hope  permanent  change  in  her  countenance,  expression  and 
motion,  with  a  sort  of  pride  of  comfort." 

In  1823  Coleridge  describes  an  accident  which  befel  his  hostess  : 

"  Mrs.  Gillman,  on  stepping  from  my  attic,  slipt  on  the  first  step 
of  a  steep  flight  of  nine  high  stairs,  precipitated  herself  and  fell  head 
foremost  on  the  fifth  stair  ;  and  when  at  the  piercing  scream  I  rushed 
out,  I  found  her  lying  on  the  landing  place,  her  head  at  the  wall. 
Even  now  the  Image,  and  the  Terror  of  the  Image,  blends  with  the 
recollection  of  the  Past  a  strange  expectancy,  a  fearful  sense  of  a 
something  still  to  come  ;  and  breaks  in,  and  makes  stoppages,  as  it 
were,  in  my  Thanks  to  God  for  her  providential  escape.  For  an 
escape  we  must  all  think  it,  though  the  small  bone  of  her  left  arm  was 
broken,  and  her  wrist  sprained.  She  went  without  a  light,  though 
(Oh  !  the  vanity  of  Prophecies,  the  sense  of  which  can  be  established 
only  by  the  proof  of  their  uselessness)  two  nights  before  I  had 
expostulated  with  her  on  this  account  with  some  warmth,  having 
previously  more  than  once  remonstrated  against  it,  on  stairs  not 
familiar  and  without  carpeting." 

The  following  beautiful  and  symbolical  letter  written  to  Mrs. 
Gillman  on  May  3,  1827,  shows  Coleridge's  attachment  and  gratitude 
to  her : — 

"  My  Dear  Friend, — I  received  and  acknowledged  your  this 
morning's  present  both  as  plant  and  symbol,  and  with  appropriate 
thanks  and  correspondent  feeling.  The  rose  is  the  pride  of  summer, 


26  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

the  delight  and  the  beauty  of  our  gardens  ;  the  eglantine,  the  honey- 
suckle and  the  jasmine,  if  not  so  bright  or  so  ambrosial,  are  less 
transient,  creep  nearer  to  us,  clothe  our  walls,  twine  over  our  porch, 
and  haply  peep  in  at  our  chamber  window,  with  the  crested  wren  or 
linnet  within  the  tufts  wishing  good  morning  to  us.  Lastly,  the 
geranium  passes  the  door,  and  in  its  hundred  varieties,  imitating  now 
this,  now  that  leaf,  odour,  blossom  of  the  garden,  still  steadily  retains 
its  owrn  staid  character,  its  own  sober  and  refreshing  hue  and  fragrance. 

"  It  deserves  to  be  the  inmate  of  the  house,  and  with  due  attention 
and  tenderness  will  live  through  the  winter,  grave  yet  cheerful,  as  an 
old  family  friend  that  makes  up  for  the  departure  of  gayer  visitors 
in  the  leafless  season. 

"  But  none  of  these  are  the  myrtle  !  In  none  of  these,  nor  in  all 
collectively,  will  the  myrtle  find  a  substitute.  All  together  and  joining 
with  them  all  the  aroma,  the  spices  and  the  balsams  of  the  hot-house, 
yet  should  they  be  a  sad  exchange  for  the  myrtle  !  Oh,  precious  in  its 
sweetness  is  the  rich  innocence  of  its  snow-white  blossoms  !  And  dear 
are  they  in  remembrance ;  but  these  may  pass  with  the  season,  and 
while  the  myrtle  plant  or  own  myrtle  plant  remains  unchanged,  its 
blossoms  are  remembered  the  more  to  endear  the  faithful  bearer  ;  yea, 
they  survive  invisibly  in  every  more  than  fragrant  leaf.  As  the  flashing 
strains  of  the  nightingale  to  the  yearning  murmurs  of  the  dove,  so  the 
myrtle  to  the  rose  !  He  who  has  once  possessed  and  prized  a  genuine 
myrtle  will  rather  remember  it  under  the  cypress  tree  than  seek  to 
forget  it  among  the  rose  bushes  of  a  paradise. 

"  God  bless  you,  my  dearest  friend,  and  be  assured  that  if  death  do 
not  suspend  memory  and  consciousness  death  itself  will  not  deprive 
you  of  a  faithful  participator  in  all  your  hopes  and  fears,  affections  and 

solicitudes,  in  your  unalterable* 

S.  T.  COLERIDGE. 

James  Gillman,  the  surgeon,  left  two  sons,  James  and  Henry 
Anthony,  the  latter  died  unmarried  on  May  31,  1858,  aged  44.  He 
had  no  daughters. 

*  The  original  of  this  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Henry  Watson  (late  of  St.  Leonard's 
Vicarage,  Tring,  Herts),  the  granddaughter  of  the  Mrs.  Gillman  to  whom  the  letter  is  addressed. 


Mrs.    ANN    GILLMAN, 

WIDOW    OF    JAMES    GILLMAN.   SURGEOM. 
OF    THE    GROVE,   HIGHGATE. 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  27 

James  Gillman,  junior,  the  eldest  son,  was  born  8  Aug.,  1808 ;  he 
was  sent  by  his  father  to  Merchant  Taylors'  School  in  May,  1818,  and 
became  the  Head  Scholar  and  Monitor  of  that  School.  He  was 
elected  to  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  on  nth  June,  1827,  and  took 
his  degree,  B.C.L.,  in  1831,  becoming  a  Fellow  of  his  College.  He 
was  ordained  in  the  same  year. 

Coleridge  writes  on  Dec.  15,  1831,  to  Mr.  J.  H.  Green:  "James 
Gillman  has  passed  an  unusually  strict  and  long  examination  for 
ordination  with  great  credit,  and  was  selected  by  the  Bishop  to  read 
the  lessons  in  the  service."  * 

In  February,  1837,  in  the  Chapel  of  the  British  Embassy,  at 
Paris,  he  married  Sophia  Riley,  daughter  of  Alexander  Riley,  Esq., 
of  Euston  Square,  London,  and  the  Burwood  and  Raby  Estates, 
near  Sydney,  New  South  Wales. 

In  May,  1834,  he  was  an  applicant  for  the  living  of  St.  Margaret's, 
Leiston,  Suffolk,  in  the  gift  alternately  of  Christ's  Hospital  and  the 
Haberdashers'  Company,  to  the  latter  of  whom  Coleridge  penned  the 
following  letter  recommending  him  for  the  same.  The  original  letter, 
which  has  not  hitherto  been  published,  is  in  the  writer's  possession, 
and  the  reader  will  doubtless  consider  it  as  much  a  testimonial  to 
Coleridge  himself  as  to  the  candidate  for  the  living ! 

* 

This  letter  was  written  two  months  before  Coleridge's  death : 

"  To  the  Court  of  Assistants  of  the  Worshipful  Company  of 

Haberdashers. 

"  Gentlemen 

"  The  Living  of  Leiston  in  your  presentation  is  vacant,  and 
one  of  the  Candidates  is  the  Reverend  James  Gillman,  Fellow  of  St. 
John's  College,  Oxford.  Among  the  weightier  Testimonials  and  from 
higher  Authority,  which  he  will,  doubtless,  lay  before  you,  condescend 
to  accept  that  of  the  humble  Individual,  whose  Name  is  subscribed, 

*  "  Letters  of  S.  T.  Coleridge."    Edited  by  Ernest  H.  Coleridge.     1895. 


28  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

and  who  at  an  advanced  Age  writes  from  a  Bed  of  Sickness  under 
convictions,  that  subordinate  every  worldly  motive  and  predilection  to 
more  aweful  Interests. 

"  I  have  known  the  Revd  James  Gillman  from  his  Childhood,  as 
having  been  from  that  time  to  this  a  trusted  Inmate  of  the  Household 
of  his  dear  and  exemplary  Parents.  I  have  followed  his  progress 
at  weekly  Intervals  from  his  entrance  into  the  Merchants'  Taylors' 
School,  and  traced  his  continued  improvements  under  the  excellent 
Mr.  Bellamy  to  his  Removal,  as  Head  Scholar,  to  S*.  John's  College  : 
and  during  his  academic  Career  his  Vacations  were  in  the  main  passed 
under  my  eye. 

"  I  was  myself  educated  for  the  Church  at  Christ's  Hospital,  and 
sent  from  that  honored  and  unique  Institution  to  Jesus  College, 
Cambridge,  under  the  tutorage  and  discipline  of  the  Revd  James 
Bowyer  who  has  left  an  honored  name  in  the  Church  for  the  zeal  and 
ability  with  which  he  formed  and  trained  his  Orphan  Pupils  to  the 
Sacred  Ministry,  as  Scholars,  as  Readers,  as  Preachers,  and  as  sound 
Interpreters  of  the  Word.  May  I  add  that  I  was  the  Junior  School- 
fellow in  the  next  place,  the  Protege,  and  the  Friend  of  the  late 
venerated  Dr.  Middleton,  the  first  Bishop  of  Calcutta.  And  assuredly 
whatever  under  such  Training  and  such  Influence  I  learnt,  or  thro'  a 
long  life  mainly  devoted  to  Scriptural,  Theological  and  Ecclesiastical 
Studies,  I  have  been  permitted  to  attain,  I  have  been  anxious  to 
communicate  to  the  Son  of  my  dearest  Friends,  with  little  less  than 
paternal  Solicitude.  And  at  all  events  I  dare  attest,  that  the  Rev* 
James  Gillman  is  pure  and  blameless  in  morals  and  unexceptionable 
in  manners,  equally  impressed  with  the  importance  of  the  Pastoral 
Duties  as  of  the  Labors  in  the  Desk  and  the  Pulpit :  and  that  his 
mind  is  made  up  to  preach  the  whole  truth  in  Christ. 

"  Accept,  Gentlemen,  the  unfeigned  Respects  of  your  aged 
humble  Servant. 

"S.  T.  COLERIDGE. 
"  Grove,  Highgate, 

"  27  May,  1834." 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  29 

The  Rev.  James  Gillman  seems  about  a  year  previous  to  this 
time  to  have  thought  of  standing  as  a  candidate  for  the  Vicarship  of 
Enfield,  the  gift  to  the  living  of  which  parish  was  apparently  in  the 
hands  of  the  parishioners  themselves,  as  appears  from  the  following 
letter,  written  on  May  7,  1833,  to  him  by  the  celebrated  though  some- 
what eccentric  Charles  Lamb,*  and  published  in  the  "  Life  of  Mary 
Lamb,"  by  Mrs.  Alex.  Gilchrist : — 

"  By  a  strange  occurrence  we  have  quitted  Enfield  for  ever.  Oh ! 
the  happy  eternity  !  Who  is  Vicar  or  Lecturer  for  that  detestable 
place  concerns  us  not.  But  Ashbury,  surgeon  and  a  good  fellow,  had 
offered  to  get  you  a  Mover  and  Seconder,  and  you  may  use  my  name 
freely  to  him.  Except  him  and  Dr.  Creswell,  I  have  no  respectable 
acquaintance  in  the  dreary  village.  At  least  my  friends  are  all  in  the 
public  line,  and  it  might  not  suit  to  have  it  moved  at  a  special  vestry 
by  John  Gage  at  the  Crown  and  Horseshoe,  licensed  victualler,  and 
seconded  by  Joseph  Horner  of  the  Green  Dragon,  ditto,  that  the  Rev. 
J.  G.  is  a  fit  person  to  be  Lecturer,  &c. 

"  My  dear  James,  I  wish  you  all  success,  but  am  too  full  of  my 
own  emancipation  almost  to  congratulate  anyone  else.  With  both 
our  loves  to  your  father  and  mother  and  glorious  S.  T.  C., 

"Yours,  C.  LAMB." 

After  acting  for  a  short  time  as  Under  Master  at  the  Highgate 
Grammar  School  he  was  presented  by  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  to 
the  living  of  Barfreystone,  Kent,  in  October,  1836,  a  village  situated 
about  half-way  between  Canterbury  and  Dover,  celebrated  for  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  small  Norman  churches  that  exists  in  England. 
This  church,  which  was  probably  designed  by  the  architect  of,  and  built 
by  the  masons  employed  at,  Canterbury  Cathedral,  is  remarkable  for 
its  beautiful  carved  south  door,  circular  Norman  window  and  carved 
work  inside  the  church. 

Owing  to  its  age  and  the  subsidence  of  the  soil,  the  church 
standing  on  a  knoll  of  ground  which  had  been  much  excavated  for 

*  The  original  letter  is  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Henry  Watson,  eldest  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  James  Gillman. 


30  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

graves,  the  walls  had  become  much  cracked  and  out  of  the  perpen- 
dicular, so  that  the  stability  of  the  whole  structure  had  become 
endangered. 

The  Rev.  James  Gillman,  soon  after  his  presentation,  saw  that 
the  restoration  or  re-building  of  the  church  was  inevitable.  At  that 
time  but  few  old  churches  had  been  restored  and  the  subject  was  but 
little  understood.  The  popular  idea  on  the  subject  was  the  old 
churchwardens'  fashions  of  beautifying  and  adorning  by  plastering 
and  whitewashing. 

The  new  rector  superintended  the  work  himself  with  reverent  care, 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Twopenny,  architect. 

It  was  necessary  to  take  all  the  principal  walls  down  to  the 
foundations.  Each  stone  was  carefully  numbered  and  laid  in  its  place 
on  the  grass  of  the  surrounding  churchyard,  the  greatest  care  being 
taken  not  to  remove  any  of  the  lichen  or  moss  that  had  grown  on  the 
outside  stones,  but  only  to  clean  and  remove  the  churchwardens' 
whitewash  where  necessary. 

When  the  church  was  re-built  all  the  stones  were  placed  back 
exactly  in  their  original  position,  the  only  difference  being  that  they 
were  upright  and  exact  in  their  fitting  as  the  church  had  been  six 
hundred  years  before. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington,  then  residing  at  Walmer,  took  a  great 
interest  in  the  restoration  of  the  church,  coming  over  several  times 
during  the  progress  of  the  work  and  lunching  with  the  Rector.  The 
Duke  contributed  liberally  to  the  Church  Restoration  Fund. 

When,  subsequently,  the  Rector  became  Vicar  of  a  parish  in 
Lambeth  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  staying  at  Lambeth  Palace 
with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  he  asked  specially  that  the  Rev. 
James  Gillman  might  be  invited  to  dinner  to  meet  him.  The  three 
dined  alone  together,  the  Duke  in  course  of  conversation  recalling 
with  pleasure  his  visits  to  Barfreystone. 


BARFREYSTONE    CHURCH,   KENT, 

FROM    THE    N.E. 
(From  a  Photo  taken  by  the  Author  in  18637. 


The  Gtllmans  of  Highgate.  3  1 

At  the  opening  of  the  church,  in  the  year  1842,  there  was  a  great 
congregation  of  the  neighbouring  clergy,  and  amongst  them  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Howley).  After  the  service  was  finished 
the  Archbishop  thus  addressed  the  Rector  :  "  Mr.  Gillman,  I  am 
much  disappointed  at  the  appearance  of  the  work,  I  thought  this 
church  had  been  restored,  I  can  see  no  signs  of  new  work,  &c." 
Whereupon  the  Rector  replied,  raising  his  hat,  "Thank  you,  my 
lord,  that  is  the  greatest  compliment  on  the  work  I  have  had  paid 
me  yet." 

The  author  was  the  first  child  baptised  (March  10,  1844)  in  the 
new  font  placed  in  the  church  soon  after  it  was  re-opened. 


In  the  year  1847  the  Rev.  James  Gillman  exchanged  the  living  of 
Barfreystone  for  the  Vicarage  of  Holy  Trinity,  Lambeth,  in  the  south 
of  London,  in  which  large  and  poor  parish  he  found  a  greater  sphere 
for  his  energies  and  indefatigable  work,  this  notice  appearing  at  the 
time  in  a  Kentish  newspaper  :  — 

"  On  Sunday  week  the  Rev.  James  Gillman  preached  a  farewell 
sermon  at  Barfreystone  Church,  near  Wingham,  and  the  following  is 
the  copy  of  an  address  from  his  late  parishioners,  together  with  the 
rev.  gentleman's  reply  :  — 

"Barfreystone,  Nov.  10,  1847. 

"  Revd.  Sir,  —  The  poor  and  humble  inhabitants  of  Barfreystone, 
sincerely  regretting  your  removal,  beg  leave  to  express  their  unfeigned 
esteem  for  your  character  and  thankfulness  for  the  religious  advantages 
enjoyed  during  your  ministry,  as  well  as  for  numerous  private  acts  of 
individual  kindness  conferred  upon  them. 

"  On  the  eve  of  your  departure  they  respectfully  solicit  your 
acceptance  of  a  silver  cream  pot  and  butter  knife,  as  a  very  small 
token  of  grateful  remembrance,  in  after  times,  when  you  are  removed 
to  a  more  enlarged  sphere  of  usefulness,  where  they  hope  and  trust  the 
blessing  of  God  will  rest  upon  you  and  your  exertions. 

"  To  the  Rev.  James  Gillman. 


32  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

"  To  the  Parishioners  of  Barfrey stone. 

"  My  dear  Christian  friends,  alas  !  no  longer  parishioners, — It  is 
with  the  deepest  emotion  that  I  receive  your  very  beautiful  and 
unexpected  testimonial,  which  I  shall  ever  prize  as  a  token  that  you 
reciprocate  those  feelings  of  regard  I  have  long  entertained  for  you  all. 

"  In  the  arduous  duties  upon  which  I  am  about  to  enter,  it  will  be 
no  small  support  and  consolation  to  reflect  that  I  carry  with  me  such 
unfeigned  sympathy  from  you  all — sympathy  the  more  valuable  because 
springing  from  the  genuine  kindness  of  your  own  hearts  rather  than 
the  popularity  of  the  opinions  I  conscientiously  entertain. 

"Mrs.  Gillman  unites  in  offering  her  most  cordial  thanks  for  the 
kind  expressions  we  have  both  personally  received,  and  in  heartily 
wishing  that  Providence  may  extend  to  you  the  highest  blessings, 
temporal  and  spiritual. 

"  Ever  yours,  faithfully  and  affectionately, 

"  J.  GILLMAN. 

"Nov.  zoth,  1847." 

The  following  year,  1848,  was  the  memorable  one  in  which  the 
cholera  visited  London  and  carried  off  thousands  of  victims,  especially 
in  the  district  of  Lambeth.  For  three  weeks  he  never  returned  to  his 
home  for  fear  of  carrying  the  contagion  to  his  family,  but  attended 
the  sick  and  dying  unremittingly  day  and  night,  never  undressing  but 
sleeping  only  on  a  sofa  in  the  surgery  of  the  parish  doctor. 

In  recognition  of  his  labours  at  this  dreadful  period  the  parish- 
ioners, though  consisting  almost  entirely  of  the  poorest  classes, 
presented  him  with  a  handsome  silver  inkstand.  At  this  time,  and 
during  the  whole  period  of  his  being  Vicar  of  Holy  Trinity,  the  Rev. 
James  Gillman  set  a  good  example  as  a  parish  priest  in  the  way 
he  visited  his  parishioners.  Once  every  year  at  least  he  called  at 
every  house  in  the  parish,  and  not  only  at  every  house,  but  upon  every 
family  in  each  house,  many  houses  having  several  families  living  in 
them.  In  those  times,  at  least,  few  clergy  were  so  unremitting  in 
their  labors. 


The    Revd.    JAMES    GILLMAN,    B.C.L. 

(Formerly  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford.} 

From  a   Painting  by  Norman  Macbeth,  A.R.S.A. 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  33 

His  experience  amongst  the  working  classes  and  the  interest  he 
took  in  their  earthly  as  well  as  spiritual  affairs  showed  him,  how  much 
difficulty  and  distress  in  consequence  often  occurred  on  the  death 
either  of  the  head  or  a  member  of  the  family,  in  providing  the  necessary 
monies  for  the  funeral,  &c. 

This  led  him  to  give  his  attention  to  the  question  of  providing  a 
fund  for  the  same  on  a  similar  principle  to  life  insurance,  then  but 
little  practised  or  known  amongst  the  working  classes,  and  adapting 
the  system  to  their  special  requirements. 

In  conjunction  with  Mr.  Henry  Harben,  then  the  secretary  of  a 
comparatively  small  and  struggling  insurance  company  (called  the 
Prudential),  he  evolved  a  scheme  for  insurance  not  only  of  the  heads 
of  a  family  but  of  the  wife  and  children,  so  that  by  small  weekly 
payments  of  one  penny  and  upwards,  without  the  annoyance  of  a 
medical  examination,  a  certain  sum  depending  on  the  age  of  the 
insured  and  the  number  of  pence  paid  weekly,  should  be  immediately 
remitted  by  return  of  post,  on  receipt  of  advice  of  the  death  of  the 
person  insured,  to  the  proper  representatives.  Thus  providing  at 
once  a  sum  of  money  for  the  funeral  and  other  expenses. 

The  Rev.  James  Gillman,  in  order  the  better  to  develop  and 
superintend  this  new  scheme,  became  Chairman  of  the  Company 
in  the  year  1850,  as  he  considered  this  a  great  philanthropic  work. 
The  office  of  director  of  an  insurance  company  being  by  Act  of 
Parliament  specially  provided  as  one  that  can  be  held  by  a  clergyman 
without  contravening  any  ecclesiastical  or  secular  law. 

So  marvellously  successful  was  this  new  scheme,  proving  itself  so 
well  adapted  to  the  requirements  of  the  working  classes,  &c.,  that  the 
sum  of  money  received  by  the  Company  on  this  account  in  weekly 
payments  of  pence  amounted  before  the  Chairman's  death,  in  1877,  to 
over  ,£2,000,000  per  annum,  and  has  since  increased  to  more  than 
double  that  amount. 


34  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

At  the  present  time  over  11,000,000  of  the  population  of  Great 
Britain,  principally  in  England,  are  insured  in  this  Company  under 
this  system,  and  sums  of  money  equal  to  over  ^1,500,000  per  annum 
are  distributed  by  the  next  post  after  receipt  of  the  proper  notice  of 
death,  to  the  representatives  of  nearly  1 70,000  persons. 

The  Rev.  James  Gillman  died  on  April  3,  1877,  his  wife  having 
predeceased  him  on  the  6th  May,  1862. 

They  had  seven  children  : 

I.     James  Coleridge,  born  May  22,   1842,  at  Bath;  died  Feb. 

!?>  1^75)  without  issue. 

II.     Alexander  William,  born  Dec.    i,    1843,   at    Barfreystone, 
Kent,  of  whom  directly. 

III.  Arthur  Riley,  born  Sept.  n,  1852,  of  whom  presently. 

IV.  Charles  Herbert,  born  July   6,   1854;    died  June  26,  1879, 

unmarried. 

I.  Lucy  Eleanor,  born  July  4,  1838  ;  married  May  19,  1863,  the 
Rev.  Henry  G.  Watson,  Vicar  of  Great  Stoughton, 
Huntingdonshire,  late  Vicar  of  St.  Leonard's,  Tring. 

II.     Amelia,  born  Feb.  13,  1840;  died  Feb.  16,  1862. 

III.     Sophia  Raby,  born  May  30,  1851  ;  married  Cosmo  Gordon 
Howard,  Esq.,  June  24,  1873. 


SAMUEL    TAYLOR    COLERIDGE 

(As  a  Yoiing  Man), 

From  an  Original  Oil  Painting,  believed  to  be  by  Matilda  Betham. 
Now  in  the  possession  of  Alex.  IV.  Gillman. 


ADDENDA. 

THE  following  letter  from  Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Watson,  granddaughter 
of  James   Gillman,   Surgeon,  of  Highgate,  appeared  in  the 
Times  on  June  8th,  1895,  in  reference  to  Coleridge's  habit  of 
taking  opium,  and  to  some  remarks  thereon  which  were  made  in  a 
review  in  the  same  newspaper  on  the  recently  published  "Letters  of 
Coleridge,"  edited  by  his  grandson,  Ernest  H.  Coleridge : — 

"S.  T.  COLERIDGE. 
"To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  'TIMES.' 

"  Sir, — In  the  review  of  the  above  work  in  your  issue  of  April  27 
your  reviewer  says  : — '  The  perpetual  cry  of  ill-health  seems  to  echo 
through  the  volumes  from  end  to  end,  and  this,  being  interpreted, 
means  little  less  than  opium  and  indolence.  There  is  no  getting  over 
this  unfortunate  truth.' 

"  In  justice  to  Coleridge's  memory  I  think  the  following  extract 
from  a  letter  by  my  grandfather,  Mr.  Gillman  (with  whom,  as  is  well 
known,  the  poet  lived  more  than  18  years),  should  be  made  more 
widely  known : — 

"  '  From  some  expressions  in  your  letter  I  am  induced  to  give 
you  a  short  account  of  Mr.  Coleridge's  personal  sufferings  and  their 
physical  causes,  which  sufferings  at  the  last  were  agonizing  to  himself 
and  to  those  about  him. 

"  '  After  his  decease  his  body  was  inspected  by  two  able  anatomists 
appointed  by  Professor  Green,  a  task  too  painful  for  either  him  or 
myself  to  perform. 

" '  The  left  side  of  the  chest  was  nearly  occupied  by  the  heart, 
which  was  immensely  enlarged  and  the  sides  of  which  were  so  thin  as 
not  to  be  able  to  sustain  its  weight  when  raised. 


36  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

" '  The  right  side  of  the  chest  was  filled  with  a  fluid  enclosed  in  a 
membrane,  having  the  appearance  of  a  cyst,  amounting  in  quantity 
to  upwards  of  three  quarts,  so  that  the  lungs  on  both  sides  were 
completely  compressed. 

" '  This  will  sufficiently  account  for  his  bodily  sufferings,  which 
were  almost  without  intermission  during  the  progress  of  the  disease, 
and  will  explain  to  you  the  necessity  of  subduing  these  sufferings  by 
narcotics,  and  of  driving  on  a  most  feeble  circulation  by  stimulants, 
which  his  case  had  imperatively  demanded. 

" '  This  disease,  which  is  generally  of  slow  progress,  had  its 
commencement  in  Coleridge  nearly  40  years  before  his  death. 

"'To  the  general  observer  his  disease  masked  itself;  and  his 
personal  sufferings  were  hidden  and  concealed  by  his  fortitude  and 
resignation  and  by  the  extraordinary  power  he  had  of  apparently 
overcoming  and  drowning  them,  as  it  were,  at  times  in  fervid 
colloquy.' 

"  I  could  say  much  more  on  this  subject  did  space  permit ;  but 
I  think  that  the  evidence  of  the  post-mortem  examination  and  the 
testimony  of  my  grandfather  as  to  his  sufferings  during  life  are 
sufficient  to  show  that  the  '  cry  of  ill-health '  was  not  all  '  opium 
and  indolence.' 

"  I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"Lucy  E.  WATSON. 
"  Great  Staughton,  St.  Neots,  June  5." 

The  above  quoted  letter  from  James  Gillman  was  written  to 
Joseph  Cottle.  The  Lancet  on  June  15,  1895,  made  the  following 
comments  on  this  letter,  reprinting  it  therein : — 

"  The  tyranny  of  the  body  finds  its  most  striking  exemplification 
in  the  subjects  of  chronic  disease,  which  without  actually  threatening 
life  so  restricts  vitality  as  to  modify  the  whole  character  of  the 
individual.  The  old  classification  of  temperaments  may  be  largely 
interpreted  in  a  pathological  sense,  for  a  real  basis  in  organic 
derangement  may  be  at  the  root  of  the  physical  and  moral  attributes 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  37 

that  the  individual  possesses.  This  is,  we  fear,  too  often  overlooked 
in  persons  who  belong  to  the  great  class  of  hypochondriacs,  for 
whom,  it  may  be,  less  sympathy  is  shown  than  is  deserved.  The  case 
of  Coleridge  is  an  illustration  of  this.  A  recent  review  of  his  life  in 
the  columns  of  the  Times  interpreted  his  '  perpetual  cry  of  ill-health' 
to  mean  *  little  less  than  opium  and  indolence.'  This  opinion  brought 
forth  from  the  granddaughter  of  Mr.  Gillman,  '  with  whom  the  poet 
lived  for  more  than  eighteen  years,'  a  reply  containing  a  most 
interesting  account  of  Coleridge's  chronic  ailment  penned  by  Mr. 
Gillman,  which  accounts  for  much  of  his  idiosyncrasies  of  character 
and  habits.  The  account  here  given  of  the  post-mortem  examination 
was  probably  not  intended  for  professional  perusal,  and  is  therefore 
not  so  precise  and  definite  as  to  be  quite  clearly  interpreted.  Thus  it 
is  somewhat  puzzling  to  define  the  condition  described  in  the  right 
pleura.  The  large  'cyst'  mentioned  could  hardly  have  been  a  hydatid. 
It  is  more  likely,  we  think,  that  it  was  really  a  pleural  effusion,  which 
seemed  to  be  encysted  from  the  presence  of  adhesions  of  the  lung  to 
the  chest  wall.  If  this  be  so  then  this  effusion  may  be  regarded  as 
dropsical  in  character,  occurring  towards  the  close  of  life  in  a  subject 
of  chronic  cardiac  dilatation.  The  account  which  describes  the 
enormous  size  of  the  heart  and  the  extreme  tenuity  of  its  walls  is 
silent  as  to  the  pericardium,  but  such  a  degree  of  enlargement  may 
well  have  been  due  to  universal  adhesion  of  the  heart  to  the  pericardial 
sac,  from  the  inflammation  of  the  latter  in  early  life.  The  record, 
however,  suffices  to  prove  that  this  intellectual  giant  must  have 
suffered  more  than  the  world  was  aware  of,  and  it  can  be  understood 
that  his  « indolence '  as  well  as  his  opium  habit  had  a  physical  basis. 
It  can  only  add  to  the  marvel  with  which  his  achievements  are  justly 
regarded  that  one  so  physically  disabled  should  have  made  such 
extensive  and  profound  contributions  to  philosophy  and  literature. 
It  is  one  more  instance  of  the  triumph  of  mind  over  body." 


Notes   by   S.   T.  Coleridge. 

r  I  ^HE  following  Notes  were,  amongst  others,  copied  by  Mrs.  Ann 

X        Gillman,  of  Highgate,  from  some  of  Coleridge's  rough  note 

books,  with  the  approval  of  Professor  Joseph  Henry  Green,  the 

Poet's  literary  executor,  and  of  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge,  his  nephew 

and  son-in-law,  for  use  in  James  Gillman's  second  volume  of  his  "  Life 

of  S.  T.  Coleridge,"  which  was  never  completed. 

They  show  the  intimate  association  of  Mr.  Gillman  with  Coleridge 
in  his  philosophical  thought,  and  are  now  (with  the  assent  of  Mr. 
Ernest  Hartley  Coleridge,  the  Poet's  grandson  and  legal  represen- 
tative) printed  for  the  first  time,  by  kind  permission  of  Mrs.  Henry 
Watson,  who  received  them  from  her  grandmother,  Mrs.  Gillman,  and 
who  has  preserved  them  with  other  papers  connected  with  Coleridge, 
with  a  view  of  writing  a  Sketch  of  the  Highgate  period  of  the  Poet 
and  Philosopher's  life. 

"Friday  Evening,  18  Sept.,  1820. 

"  Mr.  Gillman's  just  observation  of  the  Senses,  not  enumerated 
with  those  so  called,  Sight,  Hearing,  Smelling  and  Touch.  He 
instanced 

"Handiness—  -but  many  others  might  be  stated,  though  this  is 
very  striking,  permeative  and  contra  -  distinguishing.  In  some  of 
these  indeed  that  recipiency,  capacity,  active  passivity,  which  seems 
essential  to  our  notion  of  Senses  as  far  as  we  appropriate  the  term  a 
sense,  to  the  5  so  called  is  wanting — as  in  Handiness,  which  might 
therefore  seem  to  require  the  name  of  Faculty  (innate  faculty)  rather 
than  that  of  a  Sense — but  this  is  not  the  case  with  all,  as  ex.  gr.  the 
sense  of  Time,  the  sense  of  Relation  either  in  Place  or  Time  (mem. 
a  word  wanting  that  should  be  to  Time,  what  Place  is  to  Space)  but 
even  with  regard  to  the  former  as  the  faculty  of  Handiness,  there 


39  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

must  assuredly  be  co-inherent  some  feminine  or  receptive  power, 
some  peculiar  organ  of  assurance,  some  assurability  of  an  outward 
correspondent,  waiting  as  it  were  to  be  raised  from  Being  into 
Existence  by  the  formative  Handiness." 

[Vellum  clasp  (note  book),  page  267  at  the  bottom,  No.  29.] 

"Friday  evening,  Sept.  18,  1820,  half  an  hour  later. 
"  Found  Mr.  Gillman  with  Hartley  in  the  Garden  attempting  to 
explain  to  himself  and  to  Hartley  a  feeling  of  a  something  not  present 
in  Milton's  works,  /.£.,  '  The  Paradise  Lost/  '  Paradise  Regained,' 
and  '  Samson  Agonistes,'  which  he  did  feel  so  delightfully  in  the 
Lycidas — and  (as  I  added  afterwards  in  the  Italian  Sonnets  compared 
with  the  English)  and  this  appeared  to  me  the  Poet  appearing  and 
wishing  to  appear  as  the  Poet.  A  man  likewise  !  For  is  not  the  Poet 
a  man  r  as  much  as,  tho'  more  rare  than,  the  Father,  the  Brother,  the 
Preacher,  the  Patriot.  Compare  with  Milton,  Chaucer,  '  Fall  of  the 
Leaf,'  &c.,  &c.,  and  Spenser  throughout — and  you  cannot  but  feel 
what  Mr.  Gillman  meant  to  convey — what  is  the  solution  r  This  I 
believe — but  I  must  premise  that  there  is  a  Synthesis  of  intellectual 
Insight,  including  the  Mental  Object,  or  l  Anschauung,'  the  organ  and 
the  correspondent  being  indivisible,  and  this  (O  deep  truth),  because 
the  Objectivity  consists  in  the  universality  of  its  Subjectiveness.  As 
when  A  sees,  and  millions  see,  even  so — and  the  seeing  of  the  millions 
is  what  constitutes  to  A  and  to  each  of  the  million  the  objectivity  of 
the  Sight,  the  equivalent  to  a  Common  Object — (a  synthesis  of  this 
I  sayj,  and  of  proper  external  Object,  what  we  call  fact.  Now  this  it 
is,  which  we  find  in  Religion,  and  the  contents  of  Religion — it  is 
more  than  philosophical  Truth,  it  is  other  and  more  than  Historical 
Fact;  it  is  not  made  up  by  the  addition  of  the  one  to  the  other — but  it 
is  the  Identity  of  both — the  Co-inherence.  Now  this  being  understood, 
I  proceed  to  say,  using  the  term  Objectivity  (arbitrarily  I  grant)  for 
this  Identity  of  Truth  and  Fact — that  Milton  hid  the  Poetry  in  or 
transformed  (not  transubstantiated)  the  Poetry  into  this  objectivity — 
while  Shakspeare,  in  all  things  the  divine  opposite,  or  antithetic 
correspondent  of  the  divine  Milton,  transferred  the  Objectivity  into 

[Vellum  clasp  (note  book),  No  29. — S.  T.  C.,  264.] 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate,  40 

"  Mr.  Gillman  observed  as  peculiar  to  the  '  Hamlet '  that  it  alone 
of  all  Shakspeare's  Plays  presented  to  him  a  moving  along  before  him 
— while  in  others  it  was  a  moving  indeed,  but  with  which  he  himself 
moved  equally  in  all  and  with  all,  and  without  any  external  something 
Something  by  which  the  motion  was  manifested — even  as  a  man  would 
move  in  a  Balloon  out  of  the  sight  of  all  objects  but  himself  and  the 

Balloon a  sensation  of  motion,  but  not  a  sight  of  moving  and 

having  been  moved — and  why  is  this  ?  Because  of  all  the  Characters 
of  Shakespeare's  Plays,  '  Hamlet '  is  the  only  character,  with  which, 
by  centra-distinction  from  the  rest  of  the  Dram.  Pers. — they?/  and 
capable  Reader  identifies  himself,  as  the  representative  of  his  own 
contemplative  action,  &c.,  &c.,  belongs  to  others,  the  moment  we 
call  it  our  own  and  strictly  proper  and  very  oivn  Being — hence  the 
events  of  all  the  characters  move  because  you  stand  still — in  the  other 
Plays  your  identity  is  equally  diffused  over  all.  Of  no  parts  can  you 
say  as  in  '  Hamlet '  they  are  moving — (but  ever  it  is  we  or  that  period 
and  portion  of  human  action  which  is  unified  into  a  Dream,  even  as 
in  a  Dream  the  personal  unity  is  diifused  and  severalized  (divided  to 
the  sight,  tho'  united  in  the  dim  feeling)  into  a  sort  of  Reality — Even 
so  the  styles  of  Spenser  and  Chaucer — the  same  weight  of  effect  from 
the  exceeding  felicity  (Subjectivity)  of  Shakespeare — and  the  exceed- 
ing propriety  (extra  arbitrium)  of  Milton." 

[Vellum,  clasp  (note  book),  p.  266,  No.  29.] 

"  Thursday  afternoon,  8  April,  1824  (the  day  after  my  return  to  the 
Grove,  Highgate,  from  Mr.  Allsop's). 

"  A  very  original  and  pregnant  Idea  started,  and  pursued  by  Mr. 
Gillman  afforded  me  a  highly  gratifying  proof  that  I  had  not  idly 
attached  so  great  an  importance  to  the  fundamental  scheme  in  the 
Logic  of  Trichotomy  (vide  the  larger  vellum  parallelogram),  viz., 

"  Prothesis 

"  Real 
"  Thesis  "  Antithesis 

+  "  Actual  —  "  Potential 

"the  +  Real  or  Positive  Pole  and  the  — Real  or  Negative  Pole  being 
two  forms— just  as  Negative  Electricity  is  truly  Electricity  as  Positive 
Electricity. 


4 1  The  Gtllmans  of  Highgate. 

"  Now  Mr.  Gillman's  Idea  may  be  expressed  in  this  Position,  and 
in  his  own  words — 

"  Organization,  and  each  total  organismus  or  organized  Body  is 
Potential  Life ;  Life  Actual  has  no  organ.  The  Act  of  organizing  (as 
in  the  Foetus)  is  the  transition  into  the  Potential — a  vital  Fluxion — a 
becoming  Potential.  Hence  Thought  can  have  no  organ — no,  nor  yet 
proper  Sensation.  Spite  of  the  contradiction  to  this  in  the  phrase 
organs  of  Sense,  Sense  has  no  organ — and  in  strict  propriety  we 
should  say,  organs  from  the  senses.  Those  so  called  are  indeed  organs 
for  receiving  and  preparing  and  conducting  the  conditions  of  sense — 
the  cerebral  Lobes,  or  proper  Brain,  is  the  Organ — not  of  sense — but 
as  far  as  the  organic  form  and  life  are  meant — and  not  the  mere  carbon, 
Azote,  &c.,  it  is  itself  potential  sense.  Now  hereby  flashes  a  full  light 
on  the  nature  of  consciousness,  and  in  all  finite  Beings  (for  herein  their 
finiteness  consists)  of  the  Potential  to  the  Actual :  and  Consciousness 
is  the  immediate  reference  to  its  appropriate  Potential.  Hence  God 
(Actus  absolute  purus,  sine  ulla  potentialitate)  is  the  only  incorporeal 
Being.  As  consciousness  is  the  passing  of  the  Actual  into  the 
Potential,  and  therefore  at  a  given  moment  the  Indifference  of  both 
(N.B. — The  Will  alone  is  the  Identity),  so  memory  is  the  passing  of 
the  Potential  into  the  Actual — and  all  Potential,  as  necessarily 
referring  to  an  Actual,  has  an  analogous  nature  to  memory.  Hence 
the  feeling  of  Memory  connected  with  sweet  and  pathetic  Music. 

"  Sensation  +  Sense,  Sensation  tending  to  pass,  into  Sense,  the 
nascent  quantitas,  as  ex.  gr.  of  muscular  function  when  we  seem  to 
fly  in  our  sleep,  and  vice  versa  the  sense  rapidly  becoming  transitional 
into  the  Potential,  which  Transition  is  Sensation.  Now  this  Mr. 
Gillman  means  to  apply  in  detail  to  the  explanation  of  Inflamation, 
as  an  undue  Actualization  of  the  Potential,  carefully  distinguishing 
the  sequents  which  are  in  fact  the  correctives  of  Inflamation  itself 
— for  what  are  the  Thickening  Induration,  Induration,  effusion  of 
Coagulable  lymph,  &c.,  but  so  many  forms  of  potentializing  the 

Actual,  or  reducing  it  to  potentiality  ? 

"  S.  T.  C." 

[Brown  or  red  parallelogram  clasp,  1826-1827,  Page  17.] 


Coleridge  s  Manuscript  of  Schiller  s  Wallenstein. 


r  T  ^HE  following  description  by  Ferdinand  Freiligrath,  the  German 

J_        Poet,   of  the   original    Manuscript   of   Schiller's   Wallenstein 

(now  in  the  possession  of  the  writer  of  this  book),  from  which 

Coleridge  made  his  well-known  Translation,  originally  appeared  in 

the  "  Athenaeum."     It  is  deemed  expedient  that  it  should  be  here 

reprinted,  being  of  great  interest  to  admirers  of  Schiller  and  Coleridge, 

to  many  of  whom  it  is  probably  unknown. 


June  8,  1 86 1. 

By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Gillman*  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of 
collating  the  Wallenstein  Manuscript  in  his  possession,  formerly  the 
property  of  S.  T.  Coleridge,  with  Herr  Wendelin  von  Maltzahn's 
recent  publication  of  the  Berlin  Manuscript  of  Wallenstein :  a  short 
notice  of  which  was  given  in  No.  1750  of  your  journal.  Perhaps,  as 
Mr.  Gillman's  interesting  communication  has  not  failed  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  admirers  of  Schiller  and  Coleridge  in  this  country,  as 
well  as  abroad,  a  few  final  remarks  about  the  subject  may  not  seem 
out  of  place. 

The  result  of  my  examination,  quite  apart  from  all  external 
evidence,  is  this  : — The  manuscript — a  thin  folio,  consisting  of  twenty- 
four  leaves,  foolscap  size,  each  leaf  comprising  two  pages,  and  each 
page  two  columns  of  narrow  writing,  in  English  (not  German) 
characters,  is  genuine  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  It  is,  moreover, 
the  identical  copy  of  the  last  part  of  Wallenstein  from  which  Coleridge 
made  his  translation  ;  and,  lastly,  it  agrees  in  all  essential  points  with 
the  corresponding  part  of  the  manuscript  kept  at  the  Royal  Library, 
Berlin  (MS.  Germ.  Quart.  480),  as  published  by  Herr  von  Maltzahn. 

*  The  Rev.  James  Gillman. 


43  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

The  following  details  will  tend  to  corroborate  my  assertions  : — 

The  writing  of  the  verification  on  the  last  (not,  as  at  Berlin,  on 
the  first)  page  of  the  manuscript  is  unmistakeably  Schiller's.  It  is, 
like  the  manuscript  itself,  in  English  characters  (thus,  it  would  seem, 
indicating  that  the  copy  was  expressly  intended  for  the  perusal  of  a 
foreign  eye),  and  in  the  boldest  and  stateliest  style  of  the  poet's 
always  bold  and  stately  hand.  As  a  few  slips  have  occurred  in  the 
text  of  the  document  as  given  in  Mr.  Gillman's  note,  an  accurate 
reproduction  will  not  appear  superfluous  : — 

"  Dieses  Schauspiel  ist  nach  meiner  eigenen  Handschrift  copiert  und  von  mir  selbst  durch- 
gesehen,  welches  ich  hiemit  attestiere. 

"Jena,  30  September  1799.  "FRIDRICH  SCHILLER." 

The  alterations,  also,  in  the  body  of  the  manuscript  mentioned  by 
Mr.  Gillman  are  by  Schiller's  own  hand.  For  the  greatest  part  they 
are  made  to  correct  some  blunder  of  the  copier ;  sometimes,  too,  they 
are  improvements  upon  the  text.  A  less  dignified  expression  is  struck 
out,  and  a  more  dignified  word  or  phrase  put  in  instead  ;  a  happy 
simile  is  introduced  for  a  less  happy  one ;  a  word  or  a  few  words  are 
added  or  underlined  (Schiller's  underlinings  are  distinguished  from 
those  of  the  copier  by  a  blacker  sort  of  ink),  and  a  word  or  a  whole 
passage  is  cancelled  with  broad,  sweeping  dashes.  Here  and  there  a 
marginal  pencil-mark  or  a  half-visible  word,  in  English,  feebly  written 
in  pencil  between  the  lines,  meets  the  eye.  These  are  not  Schiller's, — 
they  betray  the  silent,  thoughtful  work  of  the  translator.  The  two  or 
three  words  of  the  kind  which  I  have  remarked  are  evidently  in  the 
handwriting  of  Coleridge,  and  give  the  meaning  of  the  German  words 
in  the  line  above  ;  the  marginal  marks  point  out  part  of  the  passages 
omitted  in  the  translation. 

I  have  still  to  speak  about  the  conformity  of  the  London  with 
the  Berlin  manuscript.  It  is  almost  complete.  The  title  of  both 
manuscripts  (I  must  remark,  however,  that  the  London  copy  has  not 
got  a  separate  title-page)  is,  '  Wallenstein,  ein  Trauerspiel  in  fiinf 
Aufziigen,'  not,  as  this  last  part  is  called  in  all  the  printed  editions, 
'  Wallenstein' s  Tod,'  &c.  The  arrangement  of  the  acts  and  scenes  is 
exactly  the  same  in  both  copies.  The  hitherto  unknown  passages, 


The  Gillmans  of  Highgate.  44 

also,  which  struck  us  in  the  Berlin  manuscript  (as,  for  instance,  the 
monologue  of  Butler,  act  iii.,  scene  9,  of  which  Coleridge,  as  we  now 
find,  has  only  translated  the  first  seventeen  lines  out  of  twenty-eight), 
are  equally  to  be  met  with  in  the  London  copy ;  even  the  cancelled 
passages  of  the  latter  are  indicated  as  such  in  the  Berlin  manuscript 
by  Herr  von  Maltzahn.  Yet  there  are  slight  differences, — partly  in 
the  stage  directions,  partly,  also,  in  the  dialogue.  It  is  not  my 
intention  to  give  in  this  place  a  complete  list  of  these  deviations ;  a 
few  instances  will  suffice.  In  the  Swedish  captain's  narrative  of  the 
death  of  Max  (act  iv.,  scene  4),  we  read  in  the  Berlin  manuscript : — 

Von  einer  Partisan  durchstochen,  wiithend,  stutzt 
Sein  Pferd  und  schleudert,  &c. 

In  the  London  copy  the  passage  is  the  same,  only,  instead  of  stutzt,  we 
read  in  it  steigt,  which  is  certainly  the  preferable  word,  as  a  mortally 
wounded  horse  does  not  merely  shy  (stutzt),  but  rears  (steigt).  The 
later  printed  editions  (the  first  not  being  in  my  possession  I  cannot 
compare  it),  have  the  word  bdumt,  which  is  synonymous  with  steigt. 
A  clerical  error  in  the  Berlin  manuscript,  or  a  misprint  in  Herr  von 
Maltzahn's  publication  of  it,  must  be  supposed  in  this  place.  In  the 
following  lines  (complete  in  the  Berlin  book)  : — 

ACT  n.,  SCENE  in. 

Halt !  Front !  Richt  euch.     Prasentirt ! 

****** 

Gewehr  auf  Schulter  !  Gewehr  in  Arm  ! 

ACT  ii.,  SCENE  iv. 
Rechts  um  !  Marsch  ! 

— the  words  printed  in  italics  have  been  struck  out  in  the  London 
copy.  Some  specimens,  also,  of  the  corrections  by  Schiller's  hand, 
which  we  find  in  the  London  manuscript,  will  be  of  interest : — 

ACT  ii.,  SCENE  v. 
Es  kann  nicht  seyn.     Bedenke  doch  !  Der  Alte. 

Here  "  Der  Alte  "  has  been  cancelled  for  "  Sein  Vater." 

ACT  in.,  SCENE  vi. 

Sie  waren's,  die  in  seiner  ruhigen  Brust 
Den  Aufruhr  boser  Leidenschaft  entzundet, 
Die  mit  fluchwurdiger  Geschaftigkeit 
Die  Unglucksfrucht  in  ihm  genahrt. 


45  The  Gillmans  of  Highgate. 

This  passage  stood  first,  as  I  have  given  it  above  ;  but,  by  striking 
out  and  writing  between  the  lines,  it  now  reads  (and  has  been  adopted 
in  the  later  printed  editions)  as  follows  : — 

Sie  waren's,  die  in  seine  ruhige  Brust 
Den  Saamen  boser  Leidenschaft  gestreut, 
Die,  &c. 

ACT  iv.,  SCENE  n. 
Ho'r,  General !  Dir  kann  es  nichts  verschlagen. 

Here  "  nichts  verschlagen"  has  been  struck  out,  and  " gleich  viel seyn  " 
put  in  instead.  Generally  speaking,  I  find  that  various  readings  of  the 
London  manuscript  (verified  on  the  3oth  of  September,  1799),  which 
had  later  been  rejected  in  the  Berlin  manuscript  (verified  on  the  4th 
of  November,  1799),  have  afterwards  found  their  way  again  into  the 
printed  editions. 

It  appears  strange  that  Coleridge,  translating  from  a  manuscript 
simply  entitled  '  Wallenstein,'  and  publishing  his  translation  nearly 
(or  precisely)  at  the  same  time  when  the  original  was  published 
(the  latter  appeared  in  June  1800, — the  translation,  as  the  Messrs. 
Longman  have  kindly  ascertained  at  my  request  from  their  books, 
either  in  June  or  in  July  of  the  same  year),  should  have  given  to  his 
version  the  same  title  ('  The  Death  of  Wallenstein ')  which  Schiller 
gave  to  the  drama  in  the  first  German  edition.  But  this  is  a  question 
which,  with  other  matter  about  Schiller  and  Coleridge,  may  be 
discussed  at  some  later  opportunity.  For  the  present,  I  have  no 
other  object  than  to  point  out  the  importance  of  the  manuscript  in 
Mr.  Gillman's  possession.  The  editors  of  the  future  critical  edition 
of  Schiller's  works  (already  for  some  time  seriously  contemplated  by 
the  F.  G.  Cotta'sche  Buchhandlung),  certainly  cannot  dispense  with 
recurring  to  the  London  copy  of  *  Wallenstein.'  Perhaps,  before  that 
edition  appears,  Coleridge's  manuscript  of  '  Wallenstein's  Lager '  and 
*  The  Piccolomini '  may  also  be  discovered.  Does  it  still  exist  ? — and 
where  :  In  Mr.  Gillman's  library  it  is  not. 

FERDINAND  FREILIGRATH. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


ADAMS,   DR.,   S.  T.   Coleridge's 

Medical  Adviser  ....  7 
"AiDS  TO  REFLECTION," 

Coleridge's 17 

ALLSopp,THOMAS,visits  Coleridge 

at  Highgate 10 

,  Coleridge's  Letter  to  .  .  17 

,  his  work,  "  Coleridge's 

Letters  and  Conversations".  24 
ALLSTON,  WASHINGTON,  the  Artist  20° 

,  his  Letter  to  Coleridge  .  20° 

,  his  painting  of  the  Horse 

Fair  in  Spain 20° 

ANSTER,  DR.,  his  opinion  of 

James  Gillman 20" 

BARFREYSTONE,  KENT,  Rev.  James 

Gillman,  Rector  of  .  .  29-32 

,  Restoration  of  its  Church  29 

BOWYER,  REV.  JAMES  ....  28 
BOYCE,  AMELIA,  her  sketch  of 

James  Gillman's  house  .  .  6 
BRANDL,  PROF.  A.,  on  Coleridge's 

life  at  Highgate  .  .  .  .  8-10 
BROUGHAM,  LORD,  recommends 

a  grant  to  Coleridge  ...  18 
CAINE,  HALL,  his  statements  re 

Coleridge  and  the  Gillmans  15-16 
CARLISLE,  ANTHONY,  F.R  S.  .  .  6 
CARLYLE, THOMAS,  on  Coleridge's 

life  at  Highgate 8 

CHOLERA  IN  LONDON,  1848  .  .  32 
"CHRISTABEL,"  Coleridge's  poem 

of 7 


COLERIDGE,   MRS.,   visits    the 

Gillmans 9 

COLERIDGE,  E.  H.,  his  "Letters 

of  S.  T.  Coleridge"  .   18-20,  note 

COLERIDGE,  HARTLEY  and  JAMES 
GILLMAN 39 

COLERIDGE,  H.  N.,  his  volume  of 
Coleridge's  "Table  Talk"  .  u 

COLERIDGE,  SAMUEL  TAYLOR, 
enters  James  Gillman's  house 
at  Highgate 7-8 

,  his  use  of  opium    .     .      6,  14 

,  this  habit  overcome    .     .     15 

,  his  poem  "Christabel"   7,  17 

,  his  favourite  plants     .     9,  25 

— ,  his  tour  on  the  Rhine      .     10 
— ,    his    pecuniary    circum- 
stances      J5-I9 

,  his  "  Aids  to  Reflec- 
tion"   17 

,  edition  of  his  poems  by 

Gillman  and  Jameson  ...     20 

,  his  pension   ....     17-18 

,  his  monument  at  High- 
gate  12 

,  autopsy  on    ....     35-37 

,    his    "  Inscription    for  a 

Fountain" 20" 

,  his  portrait,  by  Leslie      .    20° 

— ,    his    Life,    by    James 
Gillman 21,  38 

,    his   gratitude    to    the 

Gillmans    .     .     .    14,  19,  2OA,  20° 


Index. 


COLERIDGE,  SAMUEL  TAYLOR, 
description  of  his  life  at 
Highgate  .  .  .  .  8,  10,  n,  19 

,  his  letter  to  John  Gale    .       8 

,  his  letter  to  James 

Gillman 14 

,  his  letter  to  Thomas 

Allsop 17 

,  his  letters  to  Mrs. 

Gillman 19,  25 

,  his  letter  to  Rev.  James 

Gillman 20° 

,  his  letter  to  Dinah  Knowe    20° 

,  his  letter  to  Prof.  J.  H. 

Green 27 

,  his  letter  to  the  Haber- 
dashers' Company  ....  27 

,  his  letters  to  others     .     2OB, 

23,  24,  25 

,  his  education     ....     28 

.  Extracts  from  his  note- 
books   38 

,  his  views  on  Milton's 

poetry 39 

,  on  the  "  Logic  of 

Trichotomy" 40 

,  his  translation  of  Schiller's 


"Wallenstein" 42 

COTTLE,  JOSEPH,  James  Gillman's 

letter  to 36 

EMERSON,  RALPH  WALDO,  visits 

Coleridge  at  Highgate  .  .  9 
ENFIELD,  Rev.  James  Gillman  a 

candidate  for  the  living  of  .  29 

,  Charles  Lamb's  dislike  of  29 

FREILIGRATH,  FERDINAND,  on 

the  original  MS.  of  Schiller's 

"Wallenstein" 42 


FRERE,  HOOKHAM,  visits  Cole- 
ridge at  Highgate  .  .  .  .  10 

GALE,  JOHN,  Coleridge's  letter 

to 8 

GILLMAN,  ALEXANDER  WILLIAM     31 

GILLMAN,  AMELIA 34 

GILLMAN,  ANNE  (nee  Harding), 

her  portrait 9,  20" 

,  her  character  .  9,  19, 

20A,  2oD,  24 

,  letters  to,  from  Coleridge, 

19.  25 
,  her  memorial  inscription 

at  Highgate 22 

,  meets  with  an  accident  .  25 

GILLMAN,  ARTHUR  RILEY  ...  34 
GILLMAN,  CHARLES  HERBERT  .  34 
GILMAN,  ELIZABETH  (nee  Bracey)  5 
GILMAN,  FRANCES  (nee  Keymer) .  5 
GILLMAN,  HENRY  ANTHONY  .  22,  26 
GILLMAN,  JAMES,  born  at 

Yarmouth 5 

,  his  medical  education  .  6 

,  his  prize  essay  on  the 

"Bite  of  a  Rabid  Animal"  .  6,  9 

,  his  marriage  ....  6 

,  settles  at  Highgate  .  .  6 

,  consultations  in  London  6 

— ,  his  portrait  ....  9,  20° 

,  associated  with  Coleridge 


in  his  philosophical  thought 


9,  38 


collaborates   with  Cole- 


ridge in  a  "  Theory  of  Life  "  9 
— ,  composes  Coleridge's 

epitaph 12 

— ,  his  letter  to  the  Times  on 

Coleridge's  pension     ...     18 


Index. 


GILLMAN,  JAMES,  his  letter  to 
Joseph  Cottle  on  the  cause  of 
Coleridge's  death  ....  36 

,    still    remembered    at 

Highgate 23 

,  his  character   6,  9,  20*,  20",  23 

,  edits  Coleridge's  poems 

with  Jameson      ...      20,  note 

,  his  tour  with  the  Duke  of 

St.  Albans 21 

,  his  death  at  Ramsgate    .     21 

,   his  monument  in   St. 

Michael's,  Highgate    ...     22 
— ,  his  "Life  of  Coleridge"  21,38 

,  his  friendship  with 

Coleridge  .     .     .    6,  8,  9,  19,  20° 

,  his  hospitality  at  High- 
gate  .  .  .  9,  10,  1 6,  20A,  2oB,  23 

,   his  observations  on  the 

Senses 38 

,  his  views  on  Milton's 

poetry 39 

,   his   observations   on 

Shakespeare's  plays      ...     40 

,    his   observations   on 


organization 41 

GILLMAN,  REV.  JAMES,  and  S.  T. 

Coleridge  .  .  .  .  10,  16,  note 

,  Coleridge's  letter  to  .  .  20° 

,  his  education  ....  27 

,  applies  for  the  living  of 

Leiston 27 

,  his  character  by  Coleridge  28 

,  a  candidate  for  living  of 

Enfield 29 

,  Charles  Lamb's  letter  to  29 

,  appointed  incumbent  of 

Barfreystone 29 


GILLMAN,  REV.  JAMES,  his  restora- 
tion of  Barfreystone  Church 


,  his  farewell  at  Barfrey- 


stone 


32 


,  receives  the  living  of  Holy 
Trinity,  Lambeth  ....  31 

,  his  devotion  during  the 
cholera  epidemic  ....  32 

,  his  exertions  for  the  insur- 


ance of  the  working  classes.  33 

GILLMAN,  JAMES  COLERIDGE  .  34 

GILMAN,  JOHN,  of  Yarmouth  .  .  5 
GILLMAN,  LUCY  ELEANOR.  (See 

also  Watson,  Lucy  E.)  .  .  34 

GILLMAN,  SOPHIA  (nee  Riley)  .  .  27 

GILLMAN,  SOPHIA  RABY  ...  34 
GREEN,  PROF.  J.  H.,  visits  Cole- 

ridge at  Highgate   .     .     .     9,  1  1 

-  ,  subscribes  to  an  annuity 

for  Coleridge      .....  17 

-  ,  Coleridge's  letter  to    .     .  27 

-  ,  arranges  for  an  autopsy  on 


Coleridge 35 

,  Coleridge's  executor  .  .  38 

GROVE,  THE,  Highgate ...  5,6 
HABERDASHERS'  COMPANY, 

Coleridge's  letter  to  the  .  .  27 
HALLAM,  ARTHUR  H.,  visits 

Coleridge  at  Highgate  .  .  11 
HARDING,  ANNE.  (See  also 

Gillman,  Anne,  nee  Harding)  6 

HARDING,  JAMES 6 

HARE,  JULIUS,  visits  Coleridge 

at  Highgate ix 

HATHERLY,  LORD,  on  Coleridge's 

conversation n 

HIGHGATE  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL  23,  29 


Index. 


PAGE 

HIGHGATE  OLD  CHAPEL  .     .    10,  23 
HOLY  TRINITY,  Lambeth,   Rev. 

James  Gillman's  incumbency 

of 31,  32 

,    cholera    in    the    parish, 

1848 32 

HOWARD,  COSMO  GORDON     .     .     34 
HOWARD,     SOPHIA     RABY    (ne'e 

Gillman) 34 

HOWLEY,  ARCHBISHOP,  at  Barfrey- 

stone 31 

HUNT,  LEIGH,  and  Coleridge.     .     n 
INSURANCE  amongst  the  Working 

Classes 33 

IRVING,  EDWARD,  visits  Coleridge 

at  Highgate 11,12 

JAMESON,   — ,    edits    Coleridge's 

poems  with  James  Gillman   .     20 
KEATS,  JOHN,  visits  Coleridge  at 

Highgate 10 

KEYMER,  — ,  Surgeon  of  Norwich    5-6 

KEYMER,  FRANCES 5 

KNOWE,   DINAH,   Coleridge's 

letter  to 20° 

LAMB,  CHARLES,  visits  Coleridge 

at  Highgate 9,  1 1 

,    anecdote   of,    in    the 

coach 12 

,  his  affection  for  Coleridge 

and  the  Gillmans    ....     14 
,    his  letter  to  the  Rev. 

James  Gillman 29 

LAMBETH 31,  32 

Lancet,    the,    on    Coleridge's 

state  at  death 36 

LEISTON,  Suffolk 27 

LESLIE,  CHARLES  R.,  his  letter  to 

Coleridge 20° 


MAURICE,  FREDERICK  DENISON, 
visits  Coleridge  at  High- 
gate  ii 

MERCHANT    TAYLORS'    SCHOOL, 

James  Gillman  at  ....     27 

MIDDLETON,  DR.,  first  Bishop  of 

Calcutta 28 

MILTON,    Coleridge    and    James 

Gillman's  views  on  his  poetry     39 

MONTAGU,  BASIL,  visits  Coleridge 

at  Highgate 1 1 

MUNSTER,  EARL  OF,  and  Cole- 
ridge's pension  18 

Music,  vocal,  Coleridge  on     .     .    20" 

NORWICH 5 

PICKERING,    WILLIAM,     the 

publisher 20,  21 

PRENTISS,  — ,  the  American    .     .     21 

"  RABID  ANIMAL,"  James  Gill- 
man's Essay  on  the  Bite 
of  a 6 

RAMSGATE,   Coleridge's   summer 

visits  to 10,  25 

,  James  and  Ann  Gillman 

buried  there 22 

RESTORATION  OF  BARFREYSTONE 
CHURCH 30,  31 

RILEY,  ALEXANDER 27 

RILEY,  SOPHIA 27 

ROYAL  SOCIETY  OF  LITERATURE, 
the 18 

SCHILLER'S    Manuscript    of 

"  Wallenstein  " 42 

ST.   ALBANS,    Duke   of,    James 

Gillman's  tour  with  him  .     .     21 

ST.   JOHN'S    COLLEGE,    Oxford, 

James  Gillman  at  ....     27 

ST.  MICHAEL'S,  Highgate  .     .    12,  21 


Index. 


53 


SENSES,    Handiness    included 

among  the 38 

SHAKESPEARE,  Coleridge's  obser- 
vations on  his  objectivity  .  39 

,  James  Gillman's  obser- 
vations on  his  plays  ...  40 

SHELLEY,  PERCY  B.,  and  Cole- 
ridge   ii 

STUART,  DANIEL,  applies  to  the 
Earl  of  Munster  on  Cole- 
ridge's behalf 18 

,  Coleridge's  letter  to    .  20*,  23 

TAYLOR,  THOMAS,  his  evidence 

re  Coleridge 15 

"  THEORY  OF  LIFE,"  a,  by  Cole- 
ridge and  James  Gillman  .  9 

Times,  letters  to  the   .     .     .     .18,35 

"  WALLENSTEIN,"  the  original 
manuscript  of,  used  by  Cole- 
ridge in  his  translation  .  .  42 

WATSON,  REV.  HENRY  G.  .     .     .     34 


WATSON,  LUCY  E.  (nee  Gillman), 
furnishes    details    of    Cole- 
ridge's life  at  Highgate  .  9,  19, 
note,  2OA,  38 

,  her  letter  to  the  Times  on 

Coleridge's  death    ....     35 
— ,  her  proposed  "  Sketch  of 
Coleridge's  Life  at  Highgate"    38 

WATSON,  DR.  SETH  B.  .     .     .16,  note 

WELLINGTON,  THE  DUKE  OF,  and 

Rev.  James  Gillman     ...     30 

WILSON,  JOHN,  visits  Coleridge  at 

Highgate 1 1 

WORDSWORTH,  WILLIAM,  accom- 
panies    Coleridge     up     the 

Rhine 10 

-,  visits  Coleridge  at  High- 
gate  ii 

WORKING  CLASSES,  Rev.  James 

Gillman's  exertions  among  32-33 

YARMOUTH,  Norfolk 5 


Searches  znto  the  History 

OF   THE 

Gillman  Family, 


INCLUDING  THE 


VARIOUS  BRANCHES  IN  ENGLAND,  IRELAND,  AMERICA 

AND    BELGIUM. 


BY   ALEXANDER   W.    GILLMAN. 


THIS  work,  on  which  the  Author  has  been  engaged  during  the  past 
six  years,  is  now  in  the  Press  and  will  shortly  be  published  by 
Subscription.  It  will  contain  a  History  of  the  Family  from  the 
earliest  times ;  with  Pedigrees  of  the  various  Branches  in  England,  Ireland, 
America  and  Belgium,  showing  the  descent  of  the  Gillmans  or  Gilmans  from 
Coel  Godeboc,  King  of  Britain,  circa  A.D.  300  (and  the  previous  British 
Kings)  down  through  Gilmin  Troed-dhu  (A.D.  820),  the  founder  of  the  Fourth 
Noble  Tribe  of  Wales,  and  from  John  Gylmyn,  King's  Marshal  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  III.  (1261),  to  the  Gylmyns  or  Gilmans  of  the  Courts  and  time  of 
King  Henry  VIIL,  Queens  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  and  will  contain  Biographical 
Sketches  of  the  Gillmans  and  Gilmans  of  recent  times  and  the  present  day. 

The  Work  will  be  illustrated  with  Engravings  of  Ancient  Family 
Coats  of  Arms,  Portraits,  &c.,  copies  of  Ancient  Wills,  Pedigrees  and 
Monumental  Inscriptions. 

The  Work  will  number  about  300  pages  and  will  be  printed  in  crown 
quarto,  on  good  paper  and  handsomely  bound  in  cloth. 

PRICE  TO  SUBSCRIBERS  IN  ENGLAND,  £i.  55.  od. 
„  „  „         AMERICA,  Six  DOLLARS. 

Those  who  desire  to  become  Subscribers  are  requested  to  send  their 
names  and  addresses  to  the  Author,  ALEXANDER  W.  GILLMAN,  ESQ.,  16, 
Sussex  Square,  Brighton,  Sussex,  England ;  or  Subscriptions  in  America 
can  be  paid  to  Messrs.  GILMAN,  SON  &  Co.,  Bankers,  62,  Cedar  Street, 
New  York,  who  have  kindly  offered  to  receive  the  same. 


It  is  expected  the  volume  will  be  completed  early  in  the  present  year  (1895). 


into  %  ||i*t0rg  of  %  (Sillmatt  Jramilg. 


Radcliffe  College, 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.A., 

Nov.  21,  1894. 
ALEXANDER  GILLMAN,  ESQ. 

DEAR  SIR, — I  have  never  expected  to  see  the  early  history  of  our  family  made  so 
clear  as  you  make  it.  No  one  has  done  so  much  in  this  line  as  you  have.  Every  Oilman  and 
every  Gillman  will  be  interested  in  the  result  of  your  work. 

Yours  truly, 

ARTHUR   OILMAN, 

Regent  of  Radcliffe  College 
(Author  of  "  Oilman  Genealogy,"  Albany,  N.Y.,  1869). 


The  Johns  Hopkins  University  of  Baltimore, 
President's  Office, 

Nov.  26,  1894. 

From  my  personal  acquaintance  with  ALEXANDER  W.  GILLMAN,  ESQ.,  of  Brighton, 
England,  from  my  knowledge  of  his  persistent  and  sagacious  enquiries  into  the  History  of  the 
Oilman  Family,  and  from  an  examination  of  some  of  the  pages  of  his  proposed  Volume,  I  can 
with  the  utmost  confidence  commend  to  our  kinsmen  upon  this  side  of  the  ocean,  as  well  as  in 
England,  his  plan  of  publication.  He  will  not  expect  or  desire  any  remuneration  for  his  personal 
services,  extended  over  many  years,  but  we  who  are  to  be  instructed  and  entertained  by  the 
light  he  has  thrown  upon  the  family  history  ought  to  share  with  him  the  cost  of  printing. 
The  mechanical  execution  of  the  Volume  will  be  excellent  and  the  information  it  contains  will 
be  found  fresh,  curious,  learned  and  suggestive.  I  advise  all  who  can  to  secure  a  copy  of  the 
Volume. 

DANIEL  C.  OILMAN, 

President. 


Detroit,  Michigan,  U.S.A., 

Nov.  23,  1894. 

The  "Searches  into  the  History  of  the  Gillman  Family ,"  by  ALEXANDER  "W.  GILLMAN, 
is  unquestionably  a  work  possessing  features  which  give  it  an  unique  character,  endowing  it 
with  an  interest  and  value  seldom  if  ever  pertaining  to  a  book  of  its  classification.  The 
patient,  courageous  investigations  of  the  author  into  the  recondite  history  of  the  family  and 
times,  and  tracing  the  lineage  to  the  Kings  of  Ancient  Britain,  in  "a  complete,  continuous 
pedigree  of  forty-two  generations,  extending  over  a  period  of  1,600  years,"  have  been 
rewarded  by  discoveries  which  might  be  considered  marvellous,  and  as  passing  belief,  were  they 
not  so  well  authenticated.  The  Volume,  beautiful  in  its  typography  and  entire  equipment,  and 
provided  with  abundant  and  admirable  illustrations,  appeals  not  only  to  members  of  the  family 
and  their  connections,  but  to  anyone  who  takes  an  interest  in  genealogical  and  historical 
studies,  and  may  well  find  a  place  in  all  Public  Libraries  of  importance. 

HENRY   GILLMAN 

(Late  American  Consul  at  Jerusalem,  Palestine ). 


- 


Gillman,  Alexander  William 
The  Gillmans  of  Highgate 


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